The Chessmaster
by GothicDream
Summary: Times of peace never last. Heero Yuy learns this the hard way when his newfound peaceful life is shattered by a cruel attack. Now he and the other pilots must face a new enemy, one with dirty tricks and no humanity, and who they can't quite find. 1OC,3OC
1. The Widower

DIsclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing or any of its characters.

Summary: Several years after the war ended, Heero has finally found peace in his life. But peace doesn't come easily for everyone. Heero's fragile world is shattered when a new war erupts stealing away that which is most precious to him, and sending him on the warpath to revenge.

Note: This story is the sequel to the story Operation Rebirth, which I wrote five or so years ago. Although it is not necessary to read the first story, I do highly advise it. It explains the how Heero came to join the Preventers, and a few other important things that are relevant to this story.

Chapter 1- The Widower

It was raining ash. Dark black smoke was billowing into the sky casting shadows across what had once been a peaceful city.

The place was chaos. Sirens were ripping through the air. People were running everywhere screaming in terror, yelling orders, and shouting for someone to figure out what was going on. Ambulances were rolling into the area. Injured people were being carried toward them. Firefighters were running toward the burning building, and Preventer and police alike were setting up a cordon to ensure that no one tried to be a hero.

Heero sat still amidst the chaos. Blood was coming out of his mouth dripping down his chin. He could taste it, but only barely. He was in shock. He could do nothing more than to just stare forward into the flames. His expression of horror had long since faded into one of incomprehension.

He could vaguely recognize the fact that two strong men were holding onto him, keeping him down. He had stopped fighting them. He'd fought long and hard, but eventually, he'd been forced to give up. It was pointless.

Through his daze, he realized that one of the men had shifted their hold on him. He felt something painful prick his arm. He didn't bother to look and see what it was.

Let them do what they would to him. He didn't care.

Slowly, his vision blurred. He felt himself growing weaker, more tired. Then everything went black.

* * *

The day had started off normally. Heero, now 21 years old and working for the Preventers had reported into work that morning as usual. Usually, he was a recruit trainer, although on occasion, if his expertise was needed, he was sent on assignments. His last batch of recruits had graduated two days before, however, and so now he didn't have much to do besides paperwork. And he hated paperwork.

He'd checked in that morning, heard that Noin wanted to see him so that he could help her fill out some forms, and had then disappeared to a place where he figured Noin would never look for him.

Perhaps the only thing that had seemed odd about the day was that Wufei and Sally Po were in town. Incidentally, he ran into Wufei on his way to his secret hiding place.

Things went downhill from there.

"I hate chess." Heero mumbled to himself as Wufei, yet again took his king. Although the two played rather frequently when they were both in the same place, Heero had never—ever—won. Not once.

Though it wasn't like the two former gundam pilots saw each other regularly. Since Heero had joined the Preventers a few years before, however, they did happen across each other once every few months.

After wandering around the world for over a year, working odd jobs, trying to come to terms with a civilian life, and trying to figure out what the perfect soldier could do in a peaceful world, Heero had finally decided to join the up-start war preventing organization, the Preventers. It had been no hard feat really. He'd walked in—or sneaked in rather—told Lady Une that he was looking for work, and she was willing to give him anything he wanted.

"It's because you never improve." Wufei said and leaned back in his chair cockily.

The Records Wing's cafeteria where they were currently playing was nearly empty. Nonetheless, the two had found the table furthest in the corner. The room was, like much of the Preventer's Headquarters, simply, but expensively decorated, in a sleek, modern style.

Heero frowned at Wufei, but didn't comment. In actuality, Heero had improved since he'd begun playing chess matches against Wufei a few years before. He'd improved quite a bit actually. Wufei was just still a whole lot better. It left Heero wondering how he could be such a good tactician and still be crap at this game.

"Weren't you leaving today?" He asked in irritation. He had hoped that today might be the day that he'd finally defeat his Chinese friend. But alas, it hadn't, and that fact left him somewhat disappointed.

"Yes, he is." A voice said behind him, alerting him to a new presence.

Heero turned slightly to see that Sally Po had just walked in. She looked down at the chessboard. "Heero, if you had sacrificed your queen, you could have won."

Heero glared between her and the board. "I didn't want to."

Wufei huffed, and then stood and began pulling on his jacket.

"Speaking of queens." Sally Po began. Heero and Wufei shared a glance, wondering where this could possibly be going. "Relena Peacecraft is coming for a visit."

Heero sagged. "Here?"

"Yep."

"When?"

"In about a week or two."

"Why?"

She rolled her eyes. "Is there still bad blood between you two?"

"What? No. There never was any to begin with."

She cocked an eyebrow. "That's what you thought three years ago when we sent you to convince her to up security for her party. I'm sure you remember that."

Heero sighed. How could he forget? She'd been so mad at him—for reasons that he still couldn't figure out—that she'd been extra-contrary throughout the entire negotiation phase. By the end of it, she still hadn't agreed to a reasonable security plan, and so the gundam pilots and Preventors had ended up smuggling weapons into the party themselves. The entire event had been a fiasco, and had ended with a shoot-out, a trip to the hospital, and several law suits.

"You think she's mad at me?" He asked cluelessly. Why would she be?

"I didn't say she was." Sally said, grabbing Wufei's unopened chocolate pudding and pulling off the top.

Heero cocked his head.

"Milliardo will be coming as well." She said taking a bite of pudding. "This afternoon, in fact."

Heero sunk down in his seat a bit with a low groan. "Both of them?"

"And I'm pretty sure that _he's_ going to want a piece of you. You can thank your little Honey for that."

Heero's lip twitched in amusement at the reminder.

"What'd she do?" Wufei asked, cocking an eyebrow in curiosity.

"The yearly Valentine's Day prank." Sally supplied.

Wufei snorted. He'd heard of those. They usually involved something elaborate and pink, and very, very embarrassing. The first one had something to do with a pink honeymoon suite, complete with a heart-shaped Jacuzzi and champagne. The pranks had snowballed after that, involving more and more people. Although Lady Une always denied any involvement, she ensured every year that Milliardo and Noin were together for Valentine's Day just so that the prank could successfully be pulled. "What was it?"

"Wedding chapels."

"What?"

"She messed with their schedule and address books so that between meetings, instead of finding a hotel or a restaurant, they would wind up in a wedding chapel." Sally had heard the story from Noin, who unlike Miliardo, had come straight back to the Preventers Headquarters after their little field-trip was over.

Wufei and Heero were both snickering.

"I don't suppose you would have had any role in coming up with the prank would you?" She asked, eying Heero.

"I may have made a few suggestions." After the first few years, he figured that he'd just as well participate. Whether or not he had any hand in it, Noin and Milliardo always assumed that he had and would therefore include him in their revenge.

Sally chuckled and then checked her watch. "Come on, Chang, we've gotta go."

Wufei snatched an eggroll from his plate, and with a small nod of goodbye to Heero, followed Sally out of the room.

Heero sat for a moment staring at the chessboard. He picked up his queen and frowned at it contemplatively for a moment. Then, he smirked, tossed the queen back onto the board and left.

A few minutes later, he could be found in one of the upstairs offices of the Preventers' Affairs Building. Admittedly, this was not the best place to hide from Noin, but he couldn't help coming up for a visit.

However, after only a few minutes in the office, he had already managed to upset the person he'd come to visit.

"You're avoiding my question." Her voice held the faintest hint of annoyance. It was very faint, though, so he ignored it.

"What question?" He asked innocently, coming closer to her and wrapping his arms around the small, curly-haired woman from behind.

Her name was Audrey. He'd met her just after the war had ended—or just before, depending on how you looked at it. She'd been his…partner…for over a year afterward. Together the two had traveled around the world rebuilding things that had been destroyed during the war. They hadn't only rebuilt homes. They'd healed families, towns, and the odd soul or two. Heero's had been one of them. For what this woman had done for him, Heero would be forever grateful.

She'd taught him how to be a civilian, a friend, and eventually, a husband.

The object of his thoughts pointed to the computer screen. "About night classes. At the university down the street."

"Hmm…" Not terribly interested, he began lightly nipping at her neck. "What would you want to do that for?" He asked between kisses. "You took that test thing. And got that…other thing…"

"A high school graduation equivalent certificate." She supplied, tilting her head to give him better access. "I dunno. After all these years, I just feel bad about not going to college and stuff. I mean. The only reason I have this job is because I had connections."

Heero, listening with only half an ear, continued trailing kisses down her neck. "Mmhm." He mumbled. He trailed his hand down her side and settled it on her thigh.

"Heero."

"Hmm?" His fingers began playing with the hem of her skirt.

"Heero, Noin's going to be here any minute. You can't have your hand up my skirt when she comes." She said, pulling away and sliding into her chair.

He frowned momentarily in irritation, but then that frown was replaced by a smirk. "Yes I can." He came closer.

Suddenly, the two heard voices in the lobby.

Heero smirked devilishly and dived under her desk, motioning for her to act normally.

The door opened, and he could hear a person approach. Heero made himself comfortable in the small space beneath Audrey's desk. He knew that he was perfectly hidden from the view of anyone on the other side.

He heard Noin greet his wife. With a devilish smirk, Heero began walking his fingers up Audrey's thigh.

The two women began talking business. Heero continued to try to work his hand upwards, while Audrey inconspicuously swatted it away.

"Have you seen Heero lately?" Noin's sudden question made him freeze.

"He was just in here." Audrey said.

"Yes, that's what the secretaries told me. Though they said that he hadn't left."

Heero saw Audrey cock her head to the side. "Well you know how he gets. He sometimes likes to sneak around just so that he can prove to himself that he can still be stealthy."

The two women laughed. Heero pinched Audrey's thigh, and she coughed to cover a squeal.

"Are you sick?" Noin immediately asked.

"Oh, No, no. Just a little cough." Audrey waved the concern away. "Did you need Heero for something? You could try his cell phone."

With a grimace, Heero quickly dug into his pocket to ensure that his phone was turned off. He then glared up at his wife for making such a suggestion.

"I'd asked him to help me sort through some paperwork, but he's been running away from me all day."

"Has he?" Audrey's tapped her foot against Heero's thigh. He grabbed it and used it to uncross her legs.

"Yea. Apparently, he and Wufei holed up in the Records building all morning because they thought I wouldn't look for them there."

"I'll call him." He heard Audrey say. He grinned as she inconspicuously—and fruitlessly—tried to thwart his efforts to open her legs a bit. He traced his fingers up her inner thigh, coming scandalously high.

Audrey's booted foot pressed lightly to his groin in warning. He paused.

"He's not answering." She said.

"Are you sure you're alright? You look a little red." Noin said.

"Do I? Hmm. Maybe I'll skip the gym today."

Heero frowned in disappointment. Amusing himself by watching his wife exercise was one of his favorite things to do at the Preventers headquarters—that was if you didn't count watching her stretch. He supposed hitting the gym himself was pretty enjoyable too.

"Do take care of yourself. I hear the flu's going around this time of year."

He saw Audrey smile. "I will, thanks."

"Ah! How does the time go by?" He heard Noin mumble. "I'll come by later to give you the specifications for the meeting with Ambassador Frank."

"Ok. I'll look over this and hopefully have an answer from Cryospace Tech when you come back."

Heero heard Noin's footsteps retreating. The door opened and shut again.

Audrey's head snapped down and she glared at him. She tried to pull her chair back, but he kept an iron grip on her legs.

"You're going to get us in trouble." She said, finally pulling away. He crawled out from under her desk and stood with a chuckle. He went around her chair and leaned over the back, resuming planting kisses on her neck. He wasn't worried about getting in trouble. Une would never fire one of her gundam pilots. No matter what they did. "You're terrible when you're bored!" Audrey said with a giggle. "How long until you get a new batch of recruits?"

"Monday." He said.

The sound of the door opening again made them both bold upright. "Oh, and Audrey I forgot…" Noin stood in the doorway staring in surprise at the two people. "Heero, how…"

Heero just smirked mischievously at her. Audrey buried her face in her hand.

Noin looked between the two apparently clueless as to how Heero had managed to get back into Audrey's office without her noticing it. She blinked and shook her head. "Audrey, I need the file on Fannigan."

"Oh." Audrey pulled open a drawer and produced the file.

"Thanks." Noin took it, and then looked at Heero. "And Heero, since I've finally found you, you can come with me."

Heero scowled, but knowing that he had no real reason not to, reluctantly trudged after her.

Unbeknownst to Heero, or to anyone else in the Preventers' headquarters for that matter, a few hours after Heero had left, a message popped onto Audrey's computer screen.

Audrey frowned. This had been happening frequently over the past three days. She didn't know who her secret messenger was, but someone kept trying to talk to her.

Most of the conversation was simple, asking who she was and what she did. Judging by the screen name that was used, the person was evidently a Preventer. But as of yet, Audrey hadn't been able to figure out exactly who. Something didn't feel right about it. The Preventer interface was supposed to be used for business purposes only, not for idle chatting.

Audrey only supplied limited information, and even then, she felt nervous about giving the person any thing real.

But she was busy today. Whoever it was, she couldn't talk to them. Typing them a quick message, she told them so.

Almost immediately a message came back. _"I'm sending you a file. Make a copy and hide it."_

Audrey stared at the message. "What?" She said lowly to herself. "Weird."

Suddenly a file appeared on the link. She blinked.

"_It's very important. Do it quickly."_

The situation wasn't sitting well with her.

She clicked on the file, and then gasped as information began scrolling up the screen. Names, dates, targets, weapons. "Oh my God." Quickly she pulled open her desk, and grabbed a blank CD. Shoving it into the computer, she quickly made a copy of the file.

Another message popped up. She heard the beep, but she was too engrossed in what she was doing to look at it.

With the copy made, she quickly pulled the CD back out and ran out of her office. Only one of the secretaries was there. Audrey realized that it was around the time that most people went on break. Audrey hurried to the secretaries. Handing her the CD, she said. "I need you to take this to Une immediately. It's very important. Tell her that she needs to look at it _now_."

The young woman looked worried at the amount of seriousness on Audrey's normally cheerful face. She nodded silently.

Audrey hurried back to her office and sat at the computer. She continued scrolling through the information that the mysterious person had just sent.

She pulled out her phone, quickly dialing Heero's number. She had to tell him about this. The phone rang a few times before the operator picked up telling her that the call could not be completed. Vaguely, she remembered Heero turning off his phone earlier.

She looked back to the computer, to continue reading the file. The computer kept beeping, announcing that the mysterious messenger was still trying to talk to her.

She heard the door of her office open but didn't even glance up from her computer.

Someone strode across the room, their shoes oddly not making any noise on the dark marble floor. It wasn't until the person was standing just in front of her desk that she looked up at him. "Can I help you?" She asked, annoyed that the messenger was still continually sending her messages. In annoyance, she clicked on the message icon to see what the person had to say.

"_Get out now!"_

"_You're in danger." _

"_They're coming for you."_

Audrey felt her face go pale. "Excuse me." She said slowly to the stranger in her office. "But I…" She finally looked up at him again and fell silent.

The first thing she recognized was that he had a gun aimed right at her. The second was that his face was so cold, so void of humanity that it was unlike anything she had ever seen.

Her eyes widened, but she couldn't make herself move. She felt her finger press the redial button on the phone. She heard it ring once.

Then the man fired.

Audrey was flung backward into her chair.

She took a deep breath. The pain was like a stinging in her chest. She couldn't bring herself to look at it.

Her brain became foggy.

Through the haze, she heard the sound of the operator announcing again that the person she'd been trying to call was unavailable.

Then, she closed her eyes and slipped away.

* * *

Heero was sick of being dragged around by Noin all day. First she'd taken him to her meeting—for no other reason than to keep an eye on him. Then she had forced him to fill out the paperwork—which incidentally hadn't been as grueling as he'd expected. Then he had accompanied her to the Preventers' landing strip where they'd waited for ten minutes for Zechs' plane to arrive.

He idly wondered why he was being forced to be privy to Noin and Zechs' happy reunion, filled with its candid glances and promises to talk about this or that when they were alone.

At least he wasn't forced to carry Zechs' bag.

He rolled his eyes in annoyance at their banter and was just about to say something decidedly grumpy about it when the sound of an explosion ripped through the air. The three ex-soldiers immediately whipped toward the sound. Smoke was billowing out of the Affairs Building—Audrey's building.

"Oh my God!" Noin shouted. "That's—"

Heero caught her furtive glance at him. He'd realized it at the exact same moment. The explosion was just about where Audrey's office would be. He took off running.

"Yuy!" He heard Zechs shout after him.

People were beginning stream out of all the nearby buildings, causing Heero to have to dodge around them.

They were screaming. Somewhere in the distance, Heero heard the sound of sirens.

"Yuy!" Zechs hollered again. Heero knew that the older man was hot on his heels. "Yuy, stop!"

"Heero!" Noin was apparently running after him as well. "Heero, wait!"

Suddenly someone slammed into him from behind. Only a few people in the world could ever stagger him, but this was one of them. Heero slammed into the ground, with Milliardo Peacecraft on top of him pinning his arms to his sides.

"Let me go!" He shouted, his voice coming out unnaturally high. He could see pieces of charred paper floating slowly to the ground like leaves on an autumn day.

Zechs was having none of it. "Yuy, calm down!"

Suddenly Noin was in front of him. "Heero…" Was all she said. Her voice was so sad, so regretful that Heero redoubled his efforts. Noin tried to help Zechs hold Heero down.

He managed to shove Zechs off of him and took about two steps before he was grabbed again. This time, Zechs pulled him back and punched him straight in the face. Heero was stunned momentarily. It was just long enough for Zechs to wrestle him to the ground again.

Noin was yelling for someone to help hold him down.

Another man appeared, grabbing Heero's arms and pressing him painfully into the ground.

Heero twisted to look back up at the burning building. The fire was spreading.

He heard a familiar voice yelling in the distance. Some one near him was yelling as well.

He wasn't sure how much time elapsed, but eventually, Lady Une's black boots appeared in his vision. A young woman was trailing behind her. He stared up hopefully but then was disappointed to realize that the young woman was not Audrey. He recognized her though. She was Audrey's secretary.

She was hysterical with sobs.

Lady Une stared down at Heero for a while. "Milliardo, Hale, let him sit up." As Heero was carefully tugged into a sitting position, Une looked over to Noin. "Call Wufei. Get him and Sally back here."

Noin squatted down in front of him and stared into his eyes. "Heero. You were one of the last people in her office, correct?"

He just stared at her in horror. Why would she be asking him that?

"I'm sorry, but I need to know." She said softly. "Did you see anything?"

He tried to gather his wits about him. Swallowing the large lump that had somehow formed in his throat, he asked. "Wh…were is…?"

Une shook her head. "She was seen going back into her office only a few minutes before the explosion."

Heero jerked, but wasn't able to move an inch due to the two men who were still holding him down. He was forced to remain still, staring at the destruction before him. He felt himself shutting down.

He vaguely recognized the fact that people were continuing to talk around him. All he could think about was now unexpected it all was. Hadn't he just been there with her, talking to her, kissing her?

How could she be gone? There must be some mistake. Any minute now, she would walk up and reveal to them that she had stepped out of her office for a coffee or something. They would marvel at how lucky she had been. Heero would grab onto her and never let her go.

As he sat on the ground staring at the burning building, the truth hit him. She wasn't coming back.

Some one had murdered his wife. That someone would pay.

He had stopped paying attention to what was going on around him. All he could do was stare in shock and incomprehension at the sight of the building in flames.

Through his daze, he realized that one of the men had shifted their hold on him. He felt something painful prick his arm. He didn't bother to look and see what it was.

Slowly, his vision blurred. He felt himself growing weaker, more tired. Then everything went black.

* * *

AN: This is kind of a pilot chapter. I originally planned to post this story a while back, and had a lot of it saved on my computer. Then my computer crashed and I lost it all. Now I'm rewriting it. So let me know what you think of it, and if you'd like to read more.

Also, for any of you who have read (and liked) Operation Rebirth and are like WTF?...don't give up just yet. The content of this story will be quite a bit darker than the first one, obviously, but it's not all death and destruction, I promise. I won't give any spoilers here though.

Reviews very much appreciated!


	2. The Hostage

Warning: Rated M for violence and some torture.

Chapter 2- The Hostage

Une's phone rang. Very few people had access to her private cell phone number, but even with that limited list of people, she had been continually receiving phone calls since the accident happened. Most of the Preventers headquarters had been evacuated. Only Une and a few other high ranking officials had remained to sort out the situation.

Accident indeed. This had been a deliberate attack.

Bomb squads were doing sweeps of the entire complex looking for more threats. Firefighters were slowly fighting back the flames. They had gotten them controlled enough to be able to enter the explosion site to search for the dead and wounded. Ambulances were coming in a steady flow, clearing off the wounded and taking them to the Sanction civilian hospital.

Crowds of onlookers, Preventer employees, and reporters had swarmed to the area taking pictures of the wreckage and trying to get more information on what was going on.

As of yet, though, no one had come forward with any information. Une herself had very little idea of what had actually happened.

Her only clue was Audrey's strange behavior and the disk that the unfortunate young woman had sent to Une only minutes before the explosion. That disk was now with Noin and some of Une's most trusted officers. She was expecting a call from them any minute with a report of what had been on it.

She was also expecting a call any minute from the firefighters who were searching for bodies, and another telling her that Heero Yuy had woken up and had gone on a rampage. Those were two calls that she was particularly dreading.

Une checked the caller ID, and then with something near to a feeling of relief answered. "Duo."

"Is it true?" Was the first thing he asked.

"If you mean the attack on Preventers headquarters in Sanction, then yes. We were attacked." She paused. "And if you mean, was Audrey Yuy killed in the explosion, then…yes again. That is the presumption, at least. We haven't found a body, but she was seen going into her office only a few minutes before it."

There was a silence for a moment. Then, Duo asked. "How's Heero? He won't answer his phone."

"We had to sedate him so that he wouldn't run into the flames. As far as I know, he hasn't woken up yet. Wufei is with him, now."

"You took his gun away from him right?"

"Yes, but I don't think that he's going to run off on a killing spree."

"I meant for his own safety."

She blinked in surprise. "You think he would…?"

"I've seen him try…it…on numerous occasions. She was the best thing he had. Hell, she was all he had." He took a shuddering breath. "I'm just saying not to discount it."

There was the sound of rummaging on the other end of the line.

"Can you come?" Une asked.

"Yeah." She heard the distinct sound of a bag being zipped up. "I'll be there as soon as I can. Keep an eye on him until I get there."

"Will do." Her phone beeped, indicating that another call was coming in. "I've gotta go." Without waiting for a response, she hung up on him an switched to the other line. "Noin. What have you got?"

* * *

The first sensation that she had upon waking was that she was rocking. It wasn't a necessarily uncomfortable feeling, but it was one that she wasn't used to.

She opened her eyes groggily to take in her surroundings. She noted with confusion the shelves filled with medical equipment, the gray walls, the lights overhead. It took her a moment to realize that she was in the back on an ambulance. She tried to move, only to find that she was tied down.

She felt fine, other than a slight disorientation and a mild headache. There was no reason for her to go to a hospital.

_Why am I in an ambulance?_

She wiggled a bit against the straps that bound her. The only thing that she could move, however, was her head. With a frown, she craned her neck around to see who was driving. They would be able to explain this.

The sudden image of a man aiming a gun at her popped into her head. She gasped out loud at the vivid memory.

A voice spoke. "She's awake."

Audrey craned her neck around again, but she needn't have. Someone was coming toward her. To her horror, she found it to be the same man who had shot her.

_But…wait…_

She certainly didn't feel as though she'd been shot. Still, she regarded the man with a look of terror. She whimpered despite herself and tried to wiggle away.

The man studied her for a moment, and then turned away from her and began rummaging through drawers.

_What's going on? Is this a nightmare? Where's Heero?_

She increased her efforts to break free, but found that she couldn't budge at all.

A moment later, the man turned back. She froze, with the vague feeling that if she held still things would turn out better for her.

The man looked her up and down as if he were sizing her up. Then, with a small smirk of amusement, he leaned down and cupped her cheek. Cold, callous eyes met watery blue ones, and she could only shiver in terror.

"Wh…who are you?" She asked. "What's going on?"

He pressed a finger to her lips, and then held up a needle. She jerked her hands against the cords that bound her, but it was no use.

She felt the sting of the needle as it entered her arm.

She suddenly felt tired. The back of the ambulance was now nothing more than an indistinct gray blur with the occasional patch of red. The black shadow that she knew to be the mysterious man moved away from her. She fought to keep her eyes open, to keep the man in her sight as if doing so may prevent him from harming her. But her vision was blurry.

The man stood still for a moment longer, and then disappeared from her line of view.

Her eyelids drooped. They were so heavy. She was heavy too. Her head fell to the side and she stared at the blurry gray walls of the ambulance, trying to will herself to stay awake. It was a losing battle though.

Her eyelids fell closed and didn't open again.

* * *

Heero shot up. His breath was coming in short gasps and he was covered in sweat. He looked around in panic at the room he was in. He didn't recognize it at all.

That didn't matter, right now, though.

He'd had the most terrible dream.

There was movement to his right. His head whipped over toward what he realized to be a person, eyebrows furrowing. "I thought you left."

"They called me back." Wufei said, stepping to the side of the bed that Heero was currently sitting in. Wufei looked down at his fellow ex-pilot with a look that came surprisingly close to sympathy. Heero didn't like it. It made his stomach churn in anxiety.

"Where are we? Where's…" He trailed off.

"You're in my apartment." Wufei said, and then hesitated before speaking again. "Do you remember what happened?" Wufei's behavior was unnerving him. The usually brash, high strung man was being curiously quiet. Heero wondered why Wufei felt the need to hover over him. Heero didn't like that either. He swung his legs over the side of the bed, but he didn't yet stand.

"I remember…" He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. His eyes which were suddenly burning. He rubbed a hand across them, and then resting his elbow on his knee, dropped his forehead into his palm. "What…exactly…?" He had to know. He had to know what they knew so he could determine that this had all been a big mistake.

Finally Wufei backed off. Grabbing a chair from behind him, he pulled it closer. "The explosion originated inside her office. The blast radius was large enough to take out the entire office and the one to the right of hers. It also tore out some of the ceiling and the floor. There were 12 casualties. Audrey is presumed to be among them. There is no evidence that she escaped the blast." He paused for a moment. "They haven't found a body."

Heero's eyes were burning more now, and he was finding it harder and harder to breathe. He brought up his other hand to cover his face. Something warm and wet was filling his eyes and leaking slowly down his face. He realized that he was shivering.

Wufei didn't move to comfort him. Instead, he got up and headed toward the door.

Heero didn't care what he was doing. It didn't matter.

A moment later, however someone else walked in. Heero felt the bed shift as someone sat beside him. Warm arms embraced him and pulled him closer letting him lean his head onto her shoulder. He didn't care. Let her do what she wanted.

He recognized Sally Po's voice, but hardly heard what she was saying.

She began rubbing his back and combing her fingers through his hair.

_It's a mistake._ He repeated to himself. _It has to be a mistake. She's alive. She'll turn up somewhere. There's no body. No proof._

He knew that he was probably holding on to a false hope. An explosion of that magnitude, could easily have blown apart a person's body—especially one as small and frail as she had been. The fire would have done the rest.

The mere idea caused him to shudder violently. Sally's arms tightened around him. He'd never felt a pain like this, but then he couldn't remember ever caring for anyone as much as her. If he'd known that it would hurt this much to lose her, he might have...

No. He'd never trade that. Never trade her for that hollow, lonely life he'd once led.

She couldn't be dead. It was impossible. He would find her and never let her out of his sight again…and then he would find whoever did this. Even if he had to spend his whole life searching.

And they would pay.

He heard Wufei say something to him, but didn't pay attention to it.

He heard himself speaking as well. Mumbling something. Repeating it over and over. It took him a while to realize what he was saying. "Where's my gun? I need my gun."

Suddenly Wufei as closer, his face only inches from Heero's. "Yuy, snap out of it!"

Heero suddenly snapped back to himself, sending the man his meanest glare. His last thoughts came back to his mind. "Where is it?"

"I told you." Wufei said, with more patience than Heero would have ever thought him to possess. "I've taken it. And you will not get it back for a long time."

Heero's glare darkened. "You have no right. Give it back."

"No." Wufei said. Assured that he had Heero's attention, he stood back up. Heero didn't like being towered over in such a fashion, so he roughly broke away from Sally's hold and stood.

"Chang…" He growled warningly. He felt so lost right now. He was oscillating between despair, denial, and rage, and he couldn't grasp one of them long enough to make any useful attempt at anything.

"You won't scare me Yuy." Wufei made a small motion with his head to Sally, and Sally took a few careful steps away. "It's for your own good."

"How?"

"I've seen you try to kill yourself enough times to know that giving you a gun right now is a bad idea."

Heero felt his temper rise. He supposed that it was true that he had neglected his health and safety a bit during the war, and that that had resulted in quite a few brushes with death, but…he wasn't planning on killing himself now.

He thought for a moment.

_Not yet at least._

He brought his hand to the bridge of his nose and the pulled it away a moment later, horrified to find that it was wet. He scrubbed his face furiously to get rid of all trace of tears and then glared again at Wufei as if daring him to say something about it.

"Heero, we're only trying to help." Sally said, coming closer. He turned to glare at her too.

"I don't need your help." He nearly shouted.

Wufei's phone rang. Heero turned back to him with a feeling of hope fluttering in his stomach.

Keeping a cautious eye on Heero, Wufei dug the phone out of his pocket and answered. "Yeah?"

Sally and Heero watched silently. Though Wufei displayed no sign of it, they both somehow instinctively knew that the call was important.

"What disk?" Wufei asked. His eyes widened momentarily before going back to normal. He glanced at Heero for a moment. "Yes, he's awake…Yes, he's reacting violently…I…I don't know. Should I ask now? Oh…are you sure that's…alright then."

He hung up and looked back at Heero. "Une asks that you come to the Preventers' headquarters. It's not an order, but just a request if you're feeling up to it. She…they need to ask you a few questions."

"About what?"

Wufei glanced at Sally in silent question. She just shrugged. Wufei took a deep breath. "As I understand it, Audrey sent a disk full of very valuable information to Une only minutes before the explosion. Une wants to know if you have any idea where she might have gotten the information."

"I…" She hadn't said anything to him about that, but if she had only came across it a moment before, how would she have…? His thoughts trailed off.

It didn't make sense. It happened too fast. Breaking into the Preventers' headquarters required days of research into security guard positions and checkpoints, security codes, cameras. Sure he had had no problem just walking into the place all those years ago, but…he was special wasn't he?

He took a shaky breath. "Yeah, I'll go, but…"

He wondered why Une hadn't called him. With an odd sense of foreboding he reached into his own pocked and pulled out his phone. Flipping it open, he noticed that it was off. That feeling got worse. He turned it on and looked at the screen. His blood ran cold.

"Heero?" He heard Sally's voice beside him, but it seemed far away.

His hand shook, and he felt that miserable lump forming in his throat again. This time, it wasn't only despair and hatred that broke down his defenses and left him a wreck of a man. It was guilt too. He felt his knees grow weak, and then someone grabbed onto his arms, leading him back to sit on the bed.

"Heero!" Sally was beside him, holding him again, and trying to get a glance at the phone.

The screen read: 7 missed calls. Three from Duo. One from Quatre. Three from Audrey. The time of the last two from Audrey: 2:45. 5 minutes before the explosion.

* * *

"It's…it's unlike anything I've seen." Noin said. "A goldmine of information. And it just popped up out of nowhere." She was decidedly quieter than she had been before the events that afternoon.

Audrey had been her friend, and the news had been so shocking. Noin couldn't convince herself that her young friend's death hadn't been her fault. Noin had been one of the last people to see her. Noin had hired her as her assistant. If she hadn't done that, the poor girl would still be alive.

The door to the lab slid open. The room grew silent as an icy chill settled over it.

Three people came in, two looking sad yet composed, the third looking like a hollow shell of the man he'd once been.

No one knew quite what to do, how to act around the man who had just lost his wife and who had been called in so soon afterward to look at the object that most likely led to her death.

Noin turned her head away, closing her eyes for a moment to maintain her composure.

As the three people came toward them, Heero's eyes remained glued resolutely to the floor. He was running on instinct, functioning when really all he wanted was to curl up in a dark hole somewhere. He had no desire to see the pitying looks that they were giving him, but he had to do _something_.

"Heero." Une was the first to talk. She seemed to debate momentarily what she was going to say. Stepping toward him hesitantly, she motioned him forward. "I need you to look at this."

He came forward and stared at the computer screen that she'd indicated. It was full of information about weapons, times, dates, people's names.

"I…I've never seen that before." He said. "She didn't say anything to me about it. But…" The hand in his pocket gripped his cell phone in a shaky grip. "But she called me five minutes before the explosion." He took a shuddering breath. "My phone was off, so I missed both calls."

Une nodded and turned back. "Did she seem to be acting strangely at all in the past few days? Was anything bothering her that you noticed?"

"No." The answer was immediate. She'd been perfectly fine before.

Une turned to Wufei and Sally. "Have either of you ever heard of any of these people?"

They looked through the list, and then both shook their heads.

Une sighed. Her phone rang and she picked it up.

"Yes? You found what?" She paused, her eyebrows furrowing. "A piece of gundanium?...A gundanium ring?"

The blood drained from Heero's face. Noin noticed and quickly grabbed his arm. "Come on." She began pulling the man toward the door. He didn't protest, but just followed numbly. She motioned for Milliardo to follow her. "He needs some air."

She led them to the cafeteria and got Heero a bottle of water before leading him to a table. He sat staring unseeingly at the bottle.

He was in denial, Noin knew. She'd done the same when Zechs had been declared dead. She'd refused to believe it, and had spent months believing that he would turn up one day. Eventually, it sank in that he was gone. Incidentally, shortly afterward, he had shown up again.

But that wasn't the point. She doubted that such a thing would happen with Audrey. Especially after they'd found her wedding ring among the wreckage.

She closed her eyes and sighed.

She glanced up at Zechs. He was standing, hands held behind his back, staring out the window. Though he seemed calm, every so often he would glance toward Heero as if anticipating that the younger man would jump up and attack someone.

After a few minutes, Une walked in. She headed straight to their table and turned toward them.

"Security has no idea how someone got in past them with such a high-powered bomb." Une said. She looked to Heero and Noin. "You were both in her office earlier I hear. You didn't see anything out of place?"

They both shook their heads, Heero without looking up.

"Was there a back way into her office? Or a vent large enough to crawl through?" Une looked at Heero when she asked.

Heero glanced at her and realized that he question was directed to him. He shook his head. "No. The only way in was through the door."

"Then how did you get in and out without people seeing you?" Noin asked.

"I…" He shivered. "I didn't." He said. "I was there the whole time this morning. I was sitting under her desk. I can sometimes slip past the secretaries, but that's because they don't pay much attention. And there are enough closets in the hall outside the office that you can slip in to avoid passersby seeing you." He looked up taking a deep, steadying breath. "Where was the bomb? Exactly."

Une glanced away, aware that everyone was staring at her. "They can't be sure. But…judging by the blast radius, the bomb could have been…on her desk."

* * *

She'd woken up several times after that first occasion in the ambulance. Each time, she was groggy and disoriented. Apparently, at some point, she had been blindfolded. She'd been removed from the stretcher. Her hands had been cuffed behind her back and her feet had been bound together. A gag had been placed in her mouth, preventing her from making much noise.

Each time she'd awoken, she only stayed awake long enough to begin panicking before someone shoved a needle into her arm and she fell asleep again. And it seemed as though every time she awoke, she was somewhere else. She'd been bounced around and rocked enough to know that she was being transported somewhere. But she'd been asleep too long to measure the distance.

With a low groan, she came to one last time. She was no longer lying down. She could feel that she was sitting in a hard chair, but she couldn't see anything. She tried to move, but with a sinking feeling of dread, she realized that she was cuffed to the chair.

"Good morning, darling." She froze, tilting her head toward where she thought the voice had come from. A voice she didn't recognize.

The blindfold was suddenly, roughly pulled off.

She squinted even though the room was not that bright.

"Over here." Her head whipped toward the voice. She ignored the slight headache that indicated that whatever drug they'd been using to keep her unconscious was still in her system.

There was a man standing right beside her. He was dressed in a long brown coat. He was probably around 40, and looked poor and unkempt. Stubble lined his cheeks, and his limp, brown hair looked as though he hadn't washed it in a while.

She instinctively made a move to get away from him, and then remembered a moment later that she couldn't move. The man grinned at the growing distress on her face, but a moment later, his face turned cold.

She quickly scanned the dimly lit, dirty room. It could have been the basement of some building. The floors were made of metal though, not cement. Some of the metal was rusted, and water was dripping from a pipe on the ceiling. There was no one around to help her. A heavy-looking metal door blocked her exit.

"You can't get out."

She looked back to the man, trying to keep her trembling at bay.

"And no one will come to save you." He said with a smile. "I made sure of that."

"You're wrong." She said, and even she could hear her voice shaking.

He came to stand before her. "You want to know why I would go through all the effort of kidnapping you?" He asked, reading the confused terror on her face. "It wasn't easy you know. The Preventers headquarters a highly secure facility."

She didn't respond. There were quite a few reasons that someone would kidnap her. That she was the daughter of a rich diplomat, wife of a former gundam pilot, accidental savior of Relena Peacecraft, and closely connected to virtually all of the high-ranking employees at the Preventers were probably the most likely reasons. She had access to scores of information, knew a large portion of what the Preventers have done and what they planned to do. She knew the access and security codes for every building on the headquarters. And, she was untrained, unskilled in combat, and easy to overpower. It seemed silly in retrospect to trust someone like herself with such an important position.

"There is a mole in my ranks." The man said suddenly, bringing her terrified gaze up to meet his. "And you know who it is."

She hadn't been expecting that. "What?" She asked. "No I—"

The stinging backhand was hard enough to tip her chair over and send her crashing to the floor. She lay still for a moment in shock, both at the sudden violence and at the pain that had flared in her cheek and the arm she'd landed on. It had been years since anyone had lay a hand on her in such a fashion—the last time had been when she'd was getting mugged in a dark alleyway. She'd gotten away that time, if only barely.

"Now." He grabbed the chair and jerked her upright again before coming around to tower over her menacingly. "You will tell me who it is that sent you those messages."

"But I don't know!"

He raised his hand again, causing her to flinch back, but then thinking better of it, he dropped it back to his side. "Tch. I find it very hard to believe that someone in your position would accept so much information from a mysterious sender without confirming that sender's identity."

She shivered.

"You will tell me."

"But, I'm telling you I don't know."

He stared at her for a moment before turning to the door. "Fine, have it your way." He opened the door slightly. Audrey briefly imagined herself breaking free of her bonds and running towards it, but then a giant of a man walked in. "This is K." The man from before announced to her. "He will be convincing you to talk today. For future reference, you may call _me_ X."

The large man called K approached her and then roughly undid her hands. She struggled against his iron grip, but he was far too strong for her to break away. The man pulled her arms in front of her and then cuffed them together again.

"I'm telling the truth!" She said again, still wriggling to get away.

K wrenched her arms upward lifting her completely off the ground. She tried to kick him away, but it was difficult to do with both of her legs tied together. She heard the sound of metal grinding together and then the man stepped away from her.

She was still hanging off the ground, but he was no longer supporting her. She looked upwards in horror to find that she was hanging from a hook in the ceiling.

The cuffs were digging painfully into her wrists. She grabbed onto the chains to try to relieve some of the weight on them.

She felt her eyes tear up. "I only got the information a minute before that man showed up. I never asked the sender's identity. I don't know who it is."

The large man glanced at the brown-haired one. X nodded back to him.

K pulled his fist back and then sent it flying toward her.

Her vision spotted. She wasn't used to handling this much pain. She couldn't breathe. Her midsection was positively on fire.

Tears streamed down her face, as she struggled to draw a breath. "P…please." She coughed. "I don't—"

He hit her again.

This time, when she got her breath back, all she could do was sob.

"Still don't want to tell us?" X asked her.

She sobbed loudly. "I…don't know!" She managed to gasp out.

K sent a fist into her face, causing starts to dance before her eyes again.

She heard X talking. "Now, now, K. We wouldn't want to mess up that pretty face, would we?"

K chuckled.

Audrey hung limp from the chains. She could taste blood in her mouth. "He…" She was in so much pain. She didn't know what to do.

An image of Heero flitted through her mind. He wouldn't tell them anything, even if he knew it. He certainly wouldn't do anything to put her in danger. She wasn't as strong as Heero. She never would be. Not physically, and not mentally.

She pulled her head up, trying her best to ignore the ringing in her ears.

She would do her best to protect him. She didn't know if they knew of her connection to Heero. She wouldn't tell them of it. She didn't want to put him in danger. "They'll find me." She said. "You won't get away with this." Part of her wasn't very confident about that. She had no idea where she was, and the amused look that the man gave her left her pale.

"No one will come for you." X said.

He motioned for the two to wait for him and left the room.

She stared longingly at the open door.

X came back a moment later with a laptop under his arm. Sitting it in the crook of his arm, he hurriedly clicked a few buttons. "Do you want to know _why_ no one is coming for you?" He turned the screen toward her with a malicious smirk.

Her face drained of color at what she saw. A reporter was announcing an attack on the Preventers' headquarters in Sanction. The video showed Audrey's office building in flames. People were running to and fro. The entire place was in chaos. Pictures of victims were being displayed. Audrey was horrified at how many of them she knew. Finally, her own picture appeared on the screen. The reporter announced that the explosion had originated in her office, but that officials did not yet know how the bomb had been placed there.

Audrey glanced up at the man that was standing in front of her. She knew how.

Her photo got smaller, but remained on the screen. The scene she saw next broke her heart. As the reporter explained Audrey's connection to ex-gundam pilot Heero Yuy and the theory that the attack on her may have been revenge against him, a video was playing. In the video, Heero was being wrestled to the ground, by Milliardo Peacecraft. He struggled to get away, managed to for a moment, but then was taken down again. The chaos on the screen and her husband's horrified and devastated expression was enough to bring her to tears.

X snapped the laptop shut.

"Because you're dead." His face was victorious. "Now, be a good girl and tell K what we want to know."

He headed toward the door. "I generally don't like watching these sorts of things, so I'll be leaving now."

Her breath hitched, and she realized that she was sobbing again. Sobbing out of fear, pain, regret, and sorrow at the pain that Heero must be in now. She couldn't help but feel the hopelessness of it all. If Heero knew that she was alive, there was no doubt that he would find her. But, he didn't know that. He didn't…

"Why are you doing this?" She screamed suddenly. "What do you _want_?"

X just smirked condescendingly back at her and shut the door.

* * *

A/N: Hope you enjoyed that. I know it's a little dark, but at least she's not dead, right?

Thanks for reading, and also a big thanks to those of you who reviewed. Your opinions are always appreciated.


	3. The SafeHouse

Chapter 3—The Safe-House

Two days after the attack, Lady Une's office was a bustle of activity.

Preventers were coming and going at random intervals, reporting on findings in one location or another. Operatives were called in a steady stream as the information on the disk pointed to suspicious locations around the world. Une gave those officers assignments and then sent them on their way.

Maps and charts littered her dark oak desk. Phones were constantly ringing, and Une's office door could hardly stay closed for five minutes together as someone came in or out.

Two silent figures stood away from the action, one leaning against the wall and surveying the comings and goings with sharp black eyes, the other staring somewhat emptily out of the large windows at a blackened hole in a nearby building. Every so often, the lonely figure glanced over his shoulder at the people gathered around the large desk as if expecting something.

"I want teams at each of these sites." Une ordered. "Now." She looked to one of her aides. "See to it." It was nearly 10am. She had been there since 6. This was not how she'd wanted to spend her Sunday.

"Noin, Milliardo, you take this one." She pointed to a satellite picture of a small apartment in a shady district of a nearby city. According to the disk, the apartment was a hide out for suspicious characters. "It's only a few hours away by plane. You can be back by tomorrow morning." Une had been reluctant since the explosion to send her top officers away from the headquarters for any stretch of time. No one had any idea if the headquarters would be attacked again, or even if the attacker was still among them. Sally was heading up the investigation on the explosion.

An entire day had passed, and nothing had happened. Her security had been upped, and things were functioning almost normally again if you didn't count the disaster crew that was roaming about the grounds and the 12 empty spots on her staff. Oh, and the gruff ex-Gundam pilot who had refused to take a personal day but had instead opted to stalk through the halls of the Preventers' headquarters like a dark spirit.

Noin took the map that Une handed her and after a brief, whispered conversation, she and Milliardo left.

Une continued delegating tasks to officer after officer, conveniently skipping over him and Wufei. She could tell though, that he was growing impatient.

Finally, Heero had had enough. "And me?" He asked when there seemed to be a lull in the commotion. He would have much preferred to have made his own decision on the matter—to evaluate the information on the disk and then decide which safe-house he would hit first. Unfortunately, after that initial glance, he hadn't been allowed anywhere near that disk again. Which meant that he had to rely on Une's assignment—or ransack the homes of Une's top officials at night to try to find that disk. That would be a difficult task since Wufei had apparently been assigned to babysit him.

He glared at Une over his shoulder as if daring her to pity him. Everyone had been nothing if not overly nice and attentive since the…event. It was driving him crazy.

He didn't like this emotional turmoil. Such a loss was something he'd rarely had to deal with. He was quickly finding that the easiest way for him to deal with it was through anger—and through keeping constantly busy, but that was becoming increasingly difficult since Une had apparently decided for him that he needed time to come to terms with his loss.

He wasn't taking the situation well, and everyone else knew it. Milliardo had confiscated his keys, and Heero had been forced to spend the past two nights at Wufei's apartment. Although he'd protested at first, he later found it to be something of a relief.

He'd stopped by his house to pick up some clothes. It had been painful seeing all of the evidence of her scattered around. Her shoes by the door. Her book on the coffee table. Her coffee mug in the sink. Leftovers that she'd made in the fridge. He couldn't handle the thought that he would never get to eat any of her cooking, never see her curled up by the fireplace reading, never talk to her again.

He didn't think he could handle spending the night alone in his empty old house, and so he'd grudgingly accepted Wufei's guest room.

Une sighed bringing Heero's attention to her. "You and Wufei are to go to the spaceport. Duo and Quatre will be arriving shortly."

Heero's eyes visibly darkened at being given such a menial task, but Une ignored the fact. "You're dismissed." She said and turned back to one of her advisors.

Wufei pushed himself off the wall. He headed over to Une, and she slipped him something that looked suspiciously like Heero's keys. He then looked back to Heero and motioned for him to hurry up.

Heero sighed and followed after Wufei. As he passed Une, he glared at her, letting her know that she wasn't getting him to sit on the sidelines that easily.

A half hour later, Heero and Wufei were installed side by side in two chairs in the waiting area of the spaceport. The place made Une's office look like an oasis of calm by comparison. At least Une's office wasn't full of crying kids, and punks who didn't know when and where it wasn't appropriate to skateboard. Heero had knocked one of them off of his skateboard earlier when he'd come too close. It had been amusing to see Wufei of all people convince the kid that he didn't want a fight afterwards.

Duo's flight should have landed a minute ago. Heero recognized the number that Wufei had told him earlier on the arrival's board. He surveyed the crowd of bustling people, trying to spot Duo, but he didn't see him anywhere.

Sighing in irritation, he stretched his legs out and slouched down in his chair. "Would you give me my keys now?" He said glaring sideways at Wufei.

To the average observer, Wufei would have appeared to be sleeping. He was sitting rigid in his chair, arms crossed and head hanging to his chest. Without either opening his eyes or lifting his head, Wufei dug the keys out from his pocket and handed them to Heero.

"I don't suppose you have my gun as well."

"Nope." Wufei finally opened his eyes and glanced at his watch.

"He's landed already." Heero informed him, nodding to the screen.

"Hm."

"Hello ladies!" A familiar voice yelled above the din.

Heero and Wufei shared an un-amused glance before looking toward the source of the shout. Duo was fighting his way through the crowd, waving wildly as if they hadn't spotted him yet.

He finally reached them, and putting his hands on his hips said with a grin. "I didn't know you were both coming to get me."

"Don't flatter yourself." Wufei stood. "We're here for Quatre too."

"Aww." Duo took Wufei's hand and shook it cheerfully before turning to Heero who had moved to stand behind him. His face faltered momentarily before he plastered on a grin, and shook Heero's hand as well. "It was nice of you to offer for us to crash at your place."

Heero's eyebrows rose in surprise. "Say what?"

Duo chuckled. "Oh you didn't know?" He glanced to Wufei.

Wufei shrugged. "I don't have room. You do." Was his only explanation.

Heero frowned, but Duo wrapped an arm around his shoulder and steered him toward the baggage claim. "Don't worry. It'll be fun. I'll even cook for you."

Heero raised an eyebrow. Duo's cheerful attitude was starting to rub off—if only slightly. "You cook?"

"Sure! I can barbeque at least."

He dropped his arm from Heero's shoulder and started looking around for the baggage rack that his luggage would be on. "Oh there it is."

As Duo moved away, he paused and placed a hand on Heero's shoulder. Heero turned his gaze away. Duo briefly squeezed his shoulder, bringing Heero's eyes reluctantly toward his. Surprisingly, Duo didn't say a word. His expression said everything. As Duo moved off toward the baggage claim to search for his bag, Heero contemplated the silent message that Duo had sent him.

He was sorry. He hadn't known Audrey very well, but the two had gotten along well enough when they were together. They had had a lot in common. Heero had occasionally wondered if it was just a coincidence or if it was because they were both American. Whether or not Duo knew her well, however, he'd lost a friend.

And then there was something else. Duo hated to see Heero hurting, but there was more than just regret in his gaze. He was worried. Worried about Heero. Heero supposed that he had every right to be. He'd seen Heero throw himself out of a sky scraper window, self destruct his own gundam, ride a torpedo out to sea, and do more needlessly reckless things than Heero could keep track of.

In Duo's gaze had been a warning against trying anything stupid.

"When's Quatre getting here?" Duo asked, coming back over to them with his duffel bag slung over his shoulder.

Wufei glanced up at the screen although he already knew the answer. "He won't be here for hours."

Duo groaned. "Man, I'm starved." He said stretching. "Let's go get something to eat while we wait."

Wufei shrugged and headed off toward where he'd seen some restaurants earlier.

Heero trudged along behind him, with Duo falling into step at his side. "So has anyone talked to Trowa?" He asked Heero.

Heero just shrugged. "They don't tell me anything." He said somewhat bitterly.

It was Wufei who answered Duo's question. "Quatre managed to get in touch with him a few hours ago. He'll be here tomorrow."

Heero fell silent. It was nice that Duo was here, but he wasn't really in the mood to talk. There was an elephant in the room. Duo, Quatre and Trowa weren't coming for any Preventer business. As bad as the explosion at the Preventer's headquarters had been, the situation had not yet confirmed itself to be serious enough to require their intervention.

No they were there for other reasons. They were there to keep an eye on him. And they were there for Audrey's funeral.

* * *

Heero, Duo and Quatre didn't arrive at Heero's house until nightfall. The house had been a fixer-upper that he'd bought with Audrey years ago. They'd made a good deal of it too. Whereas it had once been dusty, moldy, and falling apart, it now sported shiny wood floors, bright, airy furniture, new appliances, and several well furnished bedrooms. The place had more than enough space to house the other gundam pilots for the duration of their stay.

Although Heero would have preferred not to go back there so soon, he had to say that having his friends there would probably brighten the place up a bit.

The four ex-pilots had gone back to the Preventers' headquarters before heading to Heero's house.

Duo and Quatre had disappeared into Une's office for several hours to be briefed on the situation. Heero and Wufei hadn't been allowed into the briefing and, so Wufei had nearly dragged Heero to the gym for a spar. Heero's pent up frustration had gotten the better of him, and…

He shook his head to will the thought away and subconsciously rubbed the side of his jaw where Wufei had kicked him. He would have to apologize to Wufei when he next saw him.

Now standing in his dark living room, Heero didn't want to think about that. He preferred to forget everything. He wondered if he had some alcohol around. That supposedly helped at times like this.

"Everything's just like the last time we visited." Quatre said offhandedly, slipping off his shoes and coming further into the room. From where he stood, he could see the cozy living room on his right with the large windows, and fireplace. To his left was an open kitchen and dining room. Straight ahead was a large curved stair case that led to the upstairs balcony as well as some of the guest rooms.

"Oh!" Duo jumped up. "I've got dibs on the game room!" As Duo bound up the stairs, Quatre turned to study his other friend.

"So…how are you, Heero?"

Heero just shrugged and looked away, wondering how he could get out of having this conversation without being completely rude. As it was, he was starting to not care if he was rude. He didn't want to talk about it. He just stared resolutely down at the design on the countertop that separated the living room from the kitchen.

"You can talk to me, you know." Quatre added hanging his jacket on the coatrack beside the door. "I won't tell anyone." He came around so he could see Heero's face better. It broke his heart to see Heero like this. His friend who was always so strong and determined, was now so broken, so hurt. So lost. "I just don't want you to—"

"I'm not going to try to kill myself, Quatre." Heero said. It would have sounded snappish if he hadn't been so tired.

Quatre paused and then inexplicably chuckled. Heero turned a glare on him. "Well that's good to hear." He said. "But I wasn't really worried about that."

"You're just about the only one."

Quatre blinked. "Really?" He meandered forward a few steps to get a better view of the house. It was much smaller than Quatre's own house—much less lavishly furnished too. But there was a certain cozy charm about the place that Quatre had always loved. He bet that when the fireplace was lit, it was a perfect little paradise.

Heero shrugged and looked away again.

Quatre glanced up to see that Duo was silently peeking down at them from the balcony. He turned back to Heero.

"Well…what I really wanted to say was that I don't want you to feel like you have to suffer all alone. I know that I can never understand what you're feeling right now, but I do want to help in any way I can. And Duo and Wufei might have trouble saying it, but I know they feel the same way." He glanced up at Duo again to see the other man grin, nod, and then disappear back into the game room.

Heero was silent for a moment and then mumbled a reluctant "thanks." Glancing at the clock and seeing that it was already past 9pm, he headed to the stairs. "Take whatever room you want, Quatre." He was pretty sure that Quatre would take the one nearest the stairs, since that would be the best way to hear if Heero ever tried to sneak down them at night. "I'm going to bed."

It would be a rough night, he knew. He would wake up in a cold sweat looking for that familiar warmth and then feel that crushing remorse again when it wasn't there. At 1am he would finally give up and go to the medicine cabinet. He would keep his promise to Quatre, but he would take an extra sleeping pill just so that he wouldn't have to dream.

He didn't know how he could go on like this. He couldn't see himself sleeping alone every night, living alone. Being alone. He doubted he would be able to do it.

* * *

A bitter wind whipped up the narrow street causing Milliardo's platinum hair to blow about his face wildly. He was crouched down in a dark alley way shrouded in the shadows. It was a cloudy night. There wasn't a star in sight. Slowly, he looked up and down the alleyway. At 3am, there was no one in the streets.

"Alright I'm in position."

"Me too." Came the voice in his earpiece.

"Alright then. 3," He pressed himself against the wall, listening closely for any movement inside the building. "2…" He shifted his weight. "1…" He pulled his gun up and turned the safety off. "Go."

In one swift movement, he spun around, kicked the door open and lunged into the room.

His first sweep of the room revealed that it was riddled with materials that could easily be made into explosives. Bags of powder were scattered on the old table in the middle of the room. Wires, batteries, and bottles of flammable liquids were crammed into the corners of the room, on the old, slanted countertops, and clearly visible in the cabinet that lacked a door.

They'd struck gold.

Milliardo didn't have time to think about that however. He had to make sure that there was no one in the house.

He crossed the room, gun drawn, and disappeared through the doorway. He met Noin in the hall. "That way's clear." She said lowly, indicating the room from which she'd come. She then nodded up at an old narrow stairway. "That's the only way left."

Milliardo brushed by her. "Stay behind me." He said, and began making his way up the stairs.

Noin frowned at his unusual show of protectiveness but then followed anyway.

There were two doors at the top of the stairs. Snoring was clearly audible from the door on the left. Milliardo motioned for Noin to get ready, and then with a quick nod, he threw the door open.

A figure shot up on the bed, but Milliardo was quicker. He leapt on top of the person, wrestling him to the floor and pinning him down.

"You have the right to remain silent." Milliardo began, pressing his knee into the man's kidney while he wrenched his arms behind his back.

As Milliardo read the man his rights, Noin kept her weapon trained on the man's head.

He furiously struggled to get free, but he wasn't going anywhere. Noin took in every aspect of his face trying to see if she recognized him from anywhere. He was a complete stranger, but his eyes were colder than any that she had ever seen.

Once Milliardo had the man subdued, he looked back to Noin. "Search the rest of the house."

She disappeared, only to come back a minute later. "At least one escaped. Out of the window of the other bedroom."

Milliardo frowned. "It's alright." He said. "We've got this one. I'll phone it in and tell Une that we'll have him back at headquarters tomorrow morning."

She nodded. "I'll go and take pictures of the evidence. I suppose Une will send another crew to clean it up."

"Yea, but we should take the more dangerous things."

She nodded and then looked down at the captive before her.

He had stopped struggling. He caught her gaze and grinned.

Something about the gaze unnerved her. It was as if he knew something that she didn't.

"We should get out of here." Noin said suddenly. She could feel the sense of danger pressing on her chest. Her heart rate was speeding up. She didn't know what it was, but she knew that they had to get out.

Milliardo glanced up at her in surprise. "What? We're not finished—"

"Now!" She insisted. She could almost feel it in the air. Something was about to happen.

His eyebrows furrowed. "Why?"

But she was already helping him pull the man to his feet. The man began chuckling, causing Noin to pull them on all the faster. Noin tugged them out of the room and to the stairs. One hand was grasping the man's bicep, and the other was holding her gun was at the ready. The wooden stairs creaked and groaned as the three rushed down them.

The sight of Milliardo beside her let her know that he had gotten the same inkling of danger as she had.

They made it down the stairs, and through the front door. Noin breathed a brief sigh of relief. Her breath clouded before her in the cold night air. She looked quickly around the street for any lurking danger, but Milliardo pulled her on down the road.

They only got a few yards down the street when they heard the explosion. The top floor of the building they had been in—the very place where they had been only minutes before was now in flames.

* * *

She'd tried to fight. She'd punched, and slapped, and scratched, and bit, and kicked, but she couldn't break free—couldn't make it to the door. In fact, K had apparently gotten tired of her behavior, and the next thing she knew she'd woken up alone on the floor of the small room with a massive headache.

Her fingers were scraped raw and covered in dried blood from when she'd tried to pry the door open. There were no hinges to remove either. Her shoulder was covered in a huge bruise from her attempt to ram the door open.

It was no use. The place was tight as a drum.

She was lying, spent, frustrated, and very, very afraid, on the dirty floor of the room. Her only bathroom was a bucket in the corner. The room now smelled terrible. She hoped that Heero found her soon.

She heard footsteps approach the door, and hurriedly sat up.

The door swung open with a bang a moment later, causing her to jump. Before her stood X. And he was clearly mad.

K stepped in behind him, shutting the door behind himself.

Audrey looked between the two men. Anxiety was curling in her stomach.

"You said you received the information only a minute before my man arrived."

She hesitated for a moment before nodding.

His eyes narrowed. "Did anyone else see it?"

Her mouth dropped open, and blanching, she snapped it shut again.

He was suddenly upon her. He grabbed her hair and pulled her face up to his. She screamed in a mixture of surprise and pain and tried to pull herself away. Her sweaty palms did nothing but slip on the metal floor. "Well? Did anyone else see it?"

"I…" She swallowed back a gasp. "I made a copy."

"You made a copy." He repeated, letting her drop back to the floor. "Why didn't you tell me before?"

She scooted away, eying him nervously.

He followed her until he had her blocked into the corner. "You lied to me."

"No…I…"

"You did. And now I don't trust anything you've told me. We'll have to start over."

"No." She whispered. "Please don't. I'll tell you everything this time. Please, just—"

But it was too late. K grabbed her arm and wrenched her upwards.

"Don't let up until she's told you everything." X growled to K. "I'll go sort out this mess." With that, X swept out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

* * *

Heero surveyed the new recruits with eyes that were much colder than those that his last batch of recruits had seen. His head was throbbing—the remnants of a poor nights sleep and a slight overdose on sleeping pills the night before.

He let Hale do all the talking. He was fairly certain that all of the recruits by now knew his situation. Apparently, everyone in the entire Earth Sphere did.

He was furious. Une had forbidden him to so much as enter the building where her specially-appointed team was investigating the explosion. And what was worse was that while Duo and Quatre had access to any information they wanted, Heero himself couldn't even get his hands on that disk. Whenever it was not in the hands of the investigations crew, it was stored safely in either Milliardo's or Wufei's secret hiding place where, even if Heero knew where _that_ was, he would have had a hard time getting to it.

Heero's eyes travelled down the line of young men, still in their civilian clothes, doing their impersonation of an erect posture. He blinked as one of the faces sparked something in his memory, and then did a double take.

The face was familiar. The young man he was staring at was taller than he'd been the last time Heero had seen him. His face was less round too.

As if sensing that Heero was staring at him, the man glanced his way. The slight smirk that he sent him in greeting was enough to confirm Heero's suspicions.

"Eyes forward, cadet!" He snapped, startling not only the person he was talking to, but the rest of the recruits as well. Through the corner of his eye, he saw them all stiffen.

Heero gave them all one last glance and then moved to the far end of the line.

_Damn it! This is what I get for letting Hale choose the new batch of recruits._

Heero stared off at the skyline as Hale explained the "grooming" process that they were all about to undergo. He didn't want to stay on Earth. He wanted to go into space. There were too many memories on Earth. Everywhere he went now, there was something that reminded him of her. Their jeep, their house, the barn where she'd hidden that old dog from him. The halls of the Preventers' headquarters that they'd walked over and over together since the fist time that he'd snuck them inside.

There were too many memories. It was just too painful.

And now there was this young man. The young man that reminded him of his first days with her, when they were both getting to know each other, when their biggest concerns seemed so simple. Only Heero knew how much he resented that man for coming here. So soon after her death.

It was bad enough that he would have to endure her parents' wailing, her father's angry accusations, his own personal guilt, a funeral that had lacked a body to bury.

He shook his head. He wanted to get out. He wanted to make himself useful—to hunt down the people who did this and make them suffer just as much as he was suffering now. He found that his noble spirit was quickly fleeing him. Pain and the desperate desire for answers were sending him spiraling off into rages.

He'd broken Wufei's wrist the day before—for no other reason than that he'd lost control. Wufei would get over his broken arm, Heero knew, but the event still worried Heero. Part of him had actually…enjoyed feeling the bones snap, hearing Wufei's cry of surprise.

Heero hadn't enjoyed the heel to the jaw that he'd received afterwards though.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a plane touch down. That would be Noin and Zechs coming back from their investigation of some supposed safe-house.

Hale began leading the cadets off to the showers. Heero followed stiffly, but his eyes remained glued to the runway and the landed plane.

Something had happened. He could tell. Fully armed Preventers were filing onto the runway, and approaching the cargo hold. As soon as the plank was down, several Preventers ran in. Heero stopped walking. Duo was there among the Preventers at the plane.

After a moment, there was a commotion. The Preventers crowded around a person, and began escorting them away. Zechs and Duo flanked them.

Heero's curiosity ignited. Who was that? They'd arrested someone? From the looks of it, it was someone dangerous.

Hale could handle the recruits on his own. He wanted to see what this was about.

* * *

A/N: I hope you enjoyed! So who's been arrested? Who's escaped? Where the heck is Trowa? When will Heero pull himself out of his frump and start kicking some butt? And will they find Audrey? You'll find all that out later.

Thanks to all of you who read, and a special thanks to those of you who reviewed! I'm glad to hear that you all liked Operation Rebirth, and that you're enjoying this story.

Also, due to the fact that mid-terms are coming up over the next few weeks, I may be updating every two weeks. I'll try to get them up as frequently as possible, though.


	4. In His Skin

Chapter 4- In His Skin  
"Une! This has got to stop!" Heero barged into Une's office, letting the door slam against the wall. Une didn't look surprised to see him. She was sitting calmly in her desk, fingers laced, and staring at him with a look that told that she had been expecting him.

Heero, however, was surprised—not at Une, but at the sight of the person who was standing in front of Une's desk. "Trowa." He blinked, before his eyes slid over to see Quatre sitting comfortably in one of the office's large leather chairs. "When did you get here?" He asked looking back to Trowa.

"About an hour ago." Trowa said and then smiled a bit. "I'm afraid my arrival wasn't the most dramatic."

Suddenly remembering his reason for being there, Heero turned back to Une. "They caught someone."

"So I've heard." Une said innocently.

"Why am I not allowed inside?" He strode across the room until he was right in front of her desk.

"Now, Heero—"

Placing both hands tensely on the desk, he leaned closer to her. "_Why_ was I just threatened at gunpoint to leave?"

Une sent him a brief acquiescent look which immediately made Heero suspicious. "I will speak to Milliardo immediately." Heero narrowed his eyes at the fact that she knew without asking who the person who'd threatened him had been. "Shouldn't you be training—?"

He cut her off again. "No!" He slapped a hand on the desk. "You will stop ordering him, and Wufei," He motioned to Trowa and Quatre. "and _them_ to treat me like a disobedient child. You'd do well to stop putting on the parental act with me yourself, before I—"

"Heero Yuy, that's enough!" Une snapped.

"No it's not." He leaned closer, his eyes flashing. "I know my wife is dead. I am fully aware of it. I don't need your sick day, I don't need you to shelter me from the truth, and I don't need your babysitters."

He let the statement linger in the air for a while. Une glanced away momentarily with an oddly conflicted look on her face.

Surprisingly, it was Trowa who broke the silence. "But, didn't—"

A quick motion from Une shut him up, leaving Heero with the distinct impression that they were keeping something from him.

He straightened and looked at Trowa. Trowa dipped his head, causing his face to fall into shadow. Heero continued to stare, trying to discern from his friend's face what he'd been about to say. Trowa just shook his head.

He would figure out what Trowa knew later. There were more important things to attend to. He narrowed his eyes at Une. "Make the call."

Une folded her hands on the desk and sighed. "No." She said firmly. "Now, Heero, I've been more than lenient with you for the past few years, but now it's an issue of professionalism. The man who was captured is being held under tight security and Preventers' staff _trained_ in interrogation are handling him. Until I give you permission, you are not to approach him. This is an order."

Heero exhaled deeply, and glared at her. "I understand." He said, looking away.

"Good." Une seemed relieved by his answer, though Heero knew that Trowa's piercing stare was still fixed on him. Heero didn't meet his eyes. Trowa could sometimes divine a little too much from a simple glance. "Since you're here, though, I wonder if you'd mind showing Trowa and Quatre to the cafeteria downstairs."

Heero had to fight back a snort of annoyance. With a reluctant nod, he turned and headed toward the door.

Quatre and Trowa shared a glance and then followed after him.

* * *

K would follow X's orders without faltering. He hadn't left her alone again until more hours than she could have possibly kept track of had passed. In the end, she had told them everything. She hated herself for doing it, and she'd hate herself even more if anything happened to Heero. But she'd been in so much pain!

She'd just wanted it to stop.

She'd told all that she'd remembered of the information she'd received. She'd told them Noin's, Zechs' and Heero's ID numbers, their daily schedules, their abilities, their weaknesses. She'd told them everything from her and Heero's address to what Heero liked to eat for breakfast.

She'd told them that she'd given the disk to the secretary and that now all of the information was probably safely with Lady Une. She had unfortunately not known Lady Une's home address—or perhaps fortunately for Une and Marimeia. Although it was definitely unfortunate in Audrey's case, because K had decided that he'd need to be more creative to get information out of her.

When it turned out that she didn't know Quatre's and Duo's addresses and had no idea where Trowa was, K had gotten more creative. After a while, she began to wonder if he was punishing her rather than trying to get information. It sure felt that way.

By the end of the inquisition session, Audrey was on the floor clutching her torn clothing. They were no more than rags now. She was sobbing brokenly and bleeding from more places than she cared to mention. She was fairly certain that some of her bones were broken. The pain made her nauseous. She felt sick and too weak to move. She wished for nothing more than for Heero to come and save her.

* * *

Heero had been relatively easy to deal with for the rest of the day. After showing Trowa and Quatre to the cafeteria, he had excused himself, saying that he wasn't hungry, and then headed back to the recruits.

At 6 o'clock, Trowa and Quatre met up with Duo and Heero to head back to Heero's house. They picked up Chinese take-out along the way, and ate while watching an old martial arts movie.

The Yuy house was quiet that night despite the sounds of the tv, and Quatre and Duo's occasional conversations. One would think that four old friends might have things to catch up on. However, personal topics were rarely broached, and chatter remained at a minimum. A somewhat tense solemnness seemed to hover over the home.

Trowa remained silently vigilant for the rest of the night. Quatre had carried on as if nothing was the matter, although he occasionally glanced over at Heero worriedly. And Duo, who had known nothing of Heero's encounter with Milliardo or his meeting with Une was completely oblivious to all of the tension. Heero remained silent, and deep in thought. The other men all somehow knew to keep their distance. No one was surprised when he disappeared into his room at 9 o'clock.

Perhaps they should have been suspicious. Perhaps they should have known that he was a little too quiet. They would realize their mistake in due time.

At 2:45 am, Duo awoke to the sound of an engine starting. He blinked groggily, seeing that it was still dark outside. He looked at the clock in confusion.

"What on earth?" He yawned, but then a moment later, shot up in bed. "No."

He jumped out of bed and hurried to the window, just in time to see the jeep pull out of the driveway.

"No!." He ran out of the room stumbling in his tiredness, and tripping over the clothes that he'd left on the floor. He made it to the landing and jumped over the banister, landing in a crouch on the floor. Without missing a second, he ran to the front door and tried to jerk it open. It was locked.

Someone suddenly reached around him and flipped the lock. Duo registered that Trowa was standing behind him, before flinging the door open, just in time to see Heero's taillights vanish in the distance. "Heero! DAMN YOU!" He shouted, somehow instinctually knowing that it was in fact Heero who had just left, and that this was a dangerous situation. "What do you think you're doing?"

There were no other vehicles, and ex-gundam pilot or not, he couldn't catch up to the jeep on foot.

"What's going on?" A sleepy Quatre emerged from his room rubbing his eyes.

"Heero snuck out." Trowa said, sounding as if he were amused with the situation.

Duo growled and bounded back up the stairs. He grabbed his phone, dialing the first person that came to mind.

The phone was answered with a loud "What?"

"Chang?"

"Maxwell, you'd better have something—"

"Heero's gone."

"…gone?"

"Yes."

"…hm…I'll be damned." He was clearly still not fully awake.

"Well do something about it!"

"Who? Me? There are three of you. Couldn't you…" A loud yawn interrupted his sentence.

"He took the jeep." Duo nearly shouted coming back onto the landing and looking down at the other two Gundam pilots below. "We can't get to him unless we call a taxi or something."

"Where's he gone?"

Duo paused, mouth hanging open. A moment later, he snapped it shut again. "Uhh…I don't know."

He heard grumbled curses. "Fine. I'll go look I guess. Call Noin or something." With that, he hung up, leaving the other three ex-gundam pilots standing in the dark staring at each other.

* * *

A dark figure swept through the shadows of the Preventers Headquarters leaving a trail of unconscious security guards in his wake. He knew exactly where he was going and he knew exactly how to get there without tripping any alarms.

He reached his destination in a matter of minutes only stopping briefly before the door to break the security code.

His shoes made no noise as he stepped into the dark room. His eyes immediately locked onto the prisoner on the single, white cot.

"I was wondering when you'd come." The prisoner said.

The dark figure didn't respond only stepping farther into the room and letting the door shut behind him. He didn't turn on the lights, but allowed the small, four-walled, windowless room to remain shrouded in darkness.

First had been the "surprise" announcement of Zechs' and Noin's engagement a few days before. Heero supposed that he could understand that, after seeing tragedy first-hand, Zechs had finally noticed a good thing when he had it, and decided not to let it go. It left Heero bitter, however—like the man was trying to rub it in his face.

He knew that Wufei would soon follow in Zechs' footsteps. The candid glances he sent to Sally, the sudden reluctance to leave her alone for a long time, and the growing nervousness that he displayed when she teased him was evidence enough.

Une's reluctance to allow him to do anything useful, and her candid secretive glances to Trowa, were just the cherry on top of the cake.

He couldn't go on being useless. It was _his_ life that had been screwed up. He needed to take action. But first he needed to figure out who exactly his enemy was.

"You should know that I won't talk." The prisoner said.

The dark figure stepped forward. "I didn't come to make you talk." He raised his head so that the prisoner could look into his cold eyes. "I came to make you suffer."

The man's eyes widened momentarily, and then Heero sprung at him, hitting him over the head hard enough to daze him.

"You messed with the wrong person." Heero grabbed the stunned man and dragged him over to the chair. Pulling out the set of handcuffs that he'd brought along, he immobilized the prisoner on the chair.

He stepped back glaring harshly as the man raised his head to look at him with glassy eyes. Heero narrowed his eyes and backhanded him. "Wake up!"

He had no pity for this man. As he'd gleaned from Duo earlier, this was indeed the man who had set the bomb in Audrey's office. Heero had no qualms about breaking him. He just hoped that he could do it before someone figured out where he was. He'd have to be quick.

* * *

The whereabouts of Heero Yuy, in his opinion, were easily guessed at. While Noin had hurried to collect the other three Gundam pilots and then head off to scour the space port, and Sally and Wufei had taken to searching the Preventers' intelligence building, and Audrey's old office, Milliardo Peacecraft had gone his own way. He knew without a doubt that he would be the one to find him.

Despite the early hour, and his disgruntlement from having been woken up at 3am after having pulled an all-nighter the night before, he was sharp enough to know exactly where he'd find 01.

Once, along his trajectory, he heard a moaning coming from the inside of a closet. After glancing inside and finding a security guard just coming back to consciousness, Milliardo's earlier suspicions were confirmed. He'd just shaken his head, helped the guard to his feet with the orders to locate his fellow security guards but not to report anything to Une, and continued on his way.

* * *

Heero stared down at the bleeding man in front of him, feeling much less satisfied than he thought he would. Grabbing the man's hair, he pulled his head up almost gently to look into his face.

Suddenly, the lights flickered on, illuminating the room. "Yuy."

Heero dropped the man's head and whipped around, staring at the newcomer in surprise. That had been quick. "Zechs."

Milliardo took a step farther into the room. Then another. He hesitantly made his way, not toward the former gundam pilot, but toward his victim.

The man was still breathing, but he appeared to be having trouble doing even that. Milliardo grabbed the man's hair—just as Heero had done only moments before—and pulled his head up to look into the sniveling face. The man's right eye was swollen shut already. Blood was pouring from his mouth and nose. A rather nasty cut trailed from his right temple to his chin.

Milliardo dropped the man's head unceremoniously and turned to regard Heero. The younger man was standing calmly, hands behind his back, head hanging low, and looking already chastised.

Milliardo took a deep breath and exhaled it loudly. He cast another glance at the mottled man in the chair. What could he possibly say?

"Did he talk at least?" He heard himself ask.

"He told me how he got in here. And how he got out. The type of bomb he used. That's all." Heero mumbled.

The room fell into silence again, with only the man's ragged breathing to break the stillness of the air.

Milliardo tried to think of something else to say. He couldn't. Luckily, he was spared speaking first. "How did you find me?" Heero asked. His resentment at being found—or perhaps at being found so soon—was evident in his voice.

Milliardo cocked his head to the side. "This is where I would be." Was all he said.

The two lapsed into silence again.

Milliardo took the time to study the younger man. He had lost weight. His face was paler than usual. He wasn't taking this well at all. And how could he be expected to? He'd just lost the best thing he'd ever had. And at such a young age.

"This will be hard to cover up." Milliardo heard himself speak again.

"You don't…have to." Came Heero's response.

Milliardo huffed. "I hardly think anyone's going to let you sit in jail for any length of time. I'm sure Une will come up with something."

Heero didn't seem to care. "I'm going into space." Heero said suddenly.

Milliardo straightened. "What for?" He glanced at the battered man in the chair. "Has he told you—"

"No." Heero said quickly. "He only told me simple things. Nothing important." He paused. "I…I just have a feeling."

"Hm." Milliardo considered the younger man. He couldn't tell whether or not he was telling the truth. Milliardo realized not for the first time that he didn't really know him all that well. "Does that usually lead you in the right direction?"

Heero nodded. "I'm taking a ship."

"Wait." Milliardo ordered. "Wait at least a week or two. It would not make any sense to fall out of grace with the Preventers. If this is as serious as we're beginning to think it is, we'll need all the allies we can get."

Without raising his head, Heero glanced up through his bangs.

"I'll talk to Une." Milliardo promised, motioning for Heero to leave the prisoner's room. "I'll have her give you a mission in space. Just promise me that you won't do anything stupid."

Heero followed him into the hall. "When have I ever—"

Milliard shut the door rather loudly and then cocked an eyebrow at Heero. Heero glanced at the door and then turned away with a hint of shame in his expression. "I'll do what I feel is right, but beyond that, I can't make any promises." He said.

Milliardo sighed. "Well I suppose that's the best we can get from you for now." He said, internally making himself a note to partner Heero with someone capable of keeping him in line—at least a little.

First things first, though. Milliardo had to call Une—to inform her of the situation with the prisoner so that she could come up with a cover-up.

They needn't have worried. At 5am that morning, a small explosion went off inside of the man's holding chamber. One security guard was killed in the blast. The captive, oddly enough, was also killed.

How a bomb had been brought into the place, baffled Heero, but the others seemed to know something. Again, he was left out of the loop. When he later was able to hack into the Preventers' security files, the information from that night—from the time that he'd entered the building himself until 7am that morning—had already been removed.

He was starting to wonder just why the Preventers didn't want him to know anything. Was there something more going on than what he thought? Whatever they were hiding from him, he would find out eventually

Unfortunately, he had other matters that required his attention.

* * *

A cold breeze rustled the grass and the bouquets of flowers that had been set around the area. It had been two weeks since the explosion, and despite Heero's promise to Une that he'd accepted Audrey's death, in reality, he hadn't. He had postponed the funeral as long as possible, hoping that something would come up—that he'd figure out that what they'd been hiding from him was that Audrey had somehow managed to survive.

Quatre had finally had to admit that they were in fact hiding something, but that it was not evidence that Audrey was alive. Heero had been forced to go through with the funeral in hopes that it would give him some closure.

Heero stood rigidly before the stone slab. Duo's hand was on his right shoulder, Quatre's on his left elbow. He didn't know why they had insisted on holding on to him, but he didn't really care.

Audrey's mother, Lillian, was sobbing somewhere to his right. Her father, Gregory had long since stopped sending Heero hateful glares and was now tearfully consoling his wife. Audrey's aunt Theresa and Uncle Fred had been a bit more sympathetic to Heero. He'd received a hug from each of them, and supportive words and hugs from Audrey's cousins as well.

He refused to cry in front of all these people—although as he stared at her name on the stone, at the collage of pictures of her set in front of it, he was finding it hard not to.

A priest was standing behind the grave stone saying a blessing or something. Heero couldn't honestly say that he was listening.

He couldn't hear much over all the sniffling and sobbing.

Most of those in attendance, he recognized. Others he didn't. The entire population of their small hometown was there, including the innkeepers that had taken them in when they'd first appeared on their doorstep. Their elderly neighbors, Ma and Pa were in attendance. Of course, Noin, Milliardo, Sally, and Une were there, along with the other four gundam pilots. He recognized a number of Preventer officers, Hale, his family, Jonathan, the secretaries.

He wondered if Audrey would be happy that this many people had come to her funeral. He didn't know. He figured that she probably wouldn't want to see this many people sad on her account.

The priest finished speaking, and people starting walking away.

Heero remained rooted in place. It wasn't until Quatre quietly spoke to him that he tore his eyes away from the tombstone. And then only briefly.

"Heero, we have to go."

He shook his head. "You go."

Quatre shared a glance with someone, likely Duo. "Come on, Heero. Everyone's already left. It's starting to snow."

Heero glanced around to see that, despite the fact that it was March, there was indeed a light flurry of snow falling. He blinked at it. It reminded him of her. So much. She loved the snow. She'd taught him the joys of snowball fights, had loved making rather ill-shaped snowmen, and then curling up by the window with cocoa and a book to watch it fall. He'd first kissed her in the snow.

He bit his lip and shook his head again, hating the fact that his eyes were now burning. He clenched his hands into fists, and ducked his head.

Quatre wouldn't be fooled. As astounded at he was to see Heero Yuy cry, he wouldn't let him stand there and try to hide it.

He wrapped an arm around him and pulled him close, pulling his head to rest on his shoulder. He didn't know whether or not to be surprised that Heero let him do this without protesting. A moment later, Heero was sobbing into his shoulder.

* * *

"He needs time." Noin argued. It was only the day after Audrey's funeral, and already Milliardo was suggesting that they send Heero on a mission in space. It was absurd.

"He _needs_ an outlet." Milliardo argued. "Chang and Maxwell aren't always going to be around to keep him in line, and _I'm_ not about to start letting him break _my_ bones whenever he loses control. You saw what he did to that man. Imagine what he'd do if we told him that that was just a grunt."

"Zechs, I'm sorry, but I agree with Noin." Une said. "It would serve no purpose for him to go rampaging around the Earth Sphere on a vengeance mission." The past two weeks had been fast-paced, full of phone calls, inspectors, police, and attacks. Une's face was pale, her eyes dark and tired. She had hardly had time to handle one crisis before another popped up. First it was the explosion, then the disk, then Heero's emotional crisis and refusal to take time off. Then gundam pilots had been arriving one after another. Heero had broken Wufei's wrist in a fit of rage. The conspirator had been captured. Heero had broken through security leaving behind quite a number of disgruntled security guards—a situation which Une had had to rectify. Heero had tortured the prisoner, and then somehow only two hours later, the prisoner was killed in an explosion. Heero swore that he didn't set the bomb, which meant that another investigation was necessary. Now that investigation had brought to light a number of rather shocking facts. She'd also had to deal with the information that Trowa had brought her—most of it very useful, but more than she had time to handle at the moment. And she'd personally seen both Trowa and Quatre to the space port that morning—Quatre with a promise to keep in touch and share any information, and Trowa with a mission. Finally, Une had a meeting with the chief of the Sanction police force in a half hour, and she didn't have time for Milliardo's sudden bout of foolery.

"He's about to do that whether or not you give him the permission." Milliardo said, in frustration. "Don't you think it's better if you at least give him something to occupy his time with?"

"He's back to work training recruits." Une said, shuffling an already neat stack of papers. She'd had too much caffeine lately. She was getting fidgety.

Miliardo placed his hands on the desk and leaned closer to her. "Did you know that one of those recruits had close ties to Audrey?"

"Really?" Une said. Noin too, looked surprised at the news. "Which one?"

"Porticos. Johnathan Porticos. They apparently took the boy in a few years ago and helped straighten him out."

Une massaged her temples. "I'm still saying 'no.'" She picked up her coffee mug, and seeing that it was already empty, put it back onto her desk with a small sigh.

"And what if he starts to figure out that we know things that we're not telling him? That the ID that was used to plant the second bomb was Audrey's? You know that he's ready to steal one of our ships and take it into space. That would be too big a scandal to cover up. And we don't need a renegade Heero Yuy on our hands."

Noin stepped up before Une could refuse. "Une…maybe. Maybe he's right. Zechs has always understood Heero better than either of us could. If he thinks that it's better for him to get an assignment, maybe…we should do it."

Une sighed. Why did her best officers have to be so volatile? "I want one of the other gundam pilots to be with him to supervise him. Can we call Quatre back? He's probably the most sympathetic one of the bunch."

"Quatre said he would have stayed, except he had urgent business. He's rebuilding the Winner foundation, remember?" Noin said. "I don't think he'd have time to spare to start working full-time for us."

"Well Wufei's out of the question. The two would kill each other in less than a week."

"Trowa?"

"The two get along well enough." Une nodded. "But he just left as well."

"I think you're forgetting someone." Milliardo cut in.

The two women turned their gazes to him "You can't possibly mean you." Noin said, sounding horrified at the very idea.

"Of course not. I meant Maxwell."

Une grimaced slightly, but Noin seemed to really consider the possibility.

"I mean, sure he's loud, and insensitive and annoys Heero as much as he amuses him. But he _is_ possibly Heero's best friend."

"Duo can't really control Heero." Une said. "And Heero somewhat enjoys pulling one over on Duo. There's no way that Duo would be able to keep an eye on him."

"Of course you've factored in the fact that Duo Maxwell is already here and willing to help." Milliardo said.

"I can't believe you're really rooting for this." Noin said.

"We need to get him on assignment as soon as possible. Preferably in space. We don't have time to wait for Barton to travel all the way back here."

Une sighed. "Fine, call Duo here so that we can explain the situation to him. I'll find a mission for them."

* * *

A/N: Sorry for the terribly long wait. I hope you enjoyed. Your input is always appreciated!


	5. Rainfall

Chapter 5- Rainfall

The stars seemed dimmer than usual. Heero attributed that fact to his mood. He was currently sitting in a shuttle flying through space staring listlessly out of the window. It would be several hours yet until they arrived at the colony that Une had ordered them to investigate. In his hand, he was gently turning over Audrey's ring.

It had been so long. Over a month already. The sharp pain and disbelief at her death had subsided to a dull ache. The burning rage still remained.

At times, he would wake up during the night and her smell would still be lingering in the air, his skin would still be tingling from where she'd touched him. He would hesitate before opening his eyes, wishing that somehow if he did, he wouldn't find himself in a space ship, and that she would be right beside him.

Inevitably, though, he couldn't hold onto his fantasy. His eyes would open as if on their own accord, and he would look against his will to the empty spot beside him. The knowledge that it had only been a dream would bring all the pain back to him.

A sudden beep snapped him out of his reverie, and he glanced over at the ship's console. A chat message had popped onto the screen.

"_Who are you_?" Was all that it said.

Heero frowned at it. It was a Preventer's ID, but he didn't recognize the number. And why would someone message him without knowing who he was?

The chair creaked slightly as he leaned over to the console and began typing. "Identify yourself." He ordered.

The message came back a moment later. "_I'm sorry but I can't."_

Heero frowned, and narrowed his eyes suspiciously. With lightning speed borne from years of experience, he began typing again. The only sounds in the cabin were the furious clicking of the keys and the occasional beep from the computer.

Almost…He almost got in…then the link cut. "Damn."

"What's up?" A voice called from the doorway. Heero glanced over to see that Duo was leaning against the door frame with a sandwich in each hand.

Heero had known exactly what Une had been doing when she'd assigned Duo as his partner. To an extent, it angered him to have been given a babysitter—an especially to have been given Duo as a babysitter. On the other hand, Duo was good company. His easygoing attitude and cheerful demeanor made the days much more bearable—although admittedly, sometimes Duo's mannerisms were a too much like Audrey's.

Heero would never admit it, but he needed someone to take care of him a little bit. If not for Duo bringing him food—after the first few failed attempts at cooking, Duo had gratefully decided to stick to cup ramen and sandwiches—Heero would have lost at least 15 pounds. If not for Duo nearly forcing him to sleep, the bags under Heero's eyes would be much darker than they were at present.

Duo handed one of the sandwiches to Heero. "Som'n wrong?"

Heero took the offering even though he wasn't at all hungry. "I…" He cocked his head as if the situation confused him. "I just got a message from someone who apparently didn't know who I was and who refused to identify themselves. I tried to trace the link, but they apparently noticed me doing it and cut it."

"Hm." Duo plopped down in the other seat. "What did they want?"

"I don't know." Heero said. "It was a Preventer ID, but…I don't think it was a Preventer."

"Really?" Duo asked, taking a huge bite of sandwich.

"Hn."

"Can you trace it?"

Heero leaned forward and began furiously typing again. After a few seconds, he sat back. "They've gotten rid of the trace."

"Oh…well…" Duo shrugged. "We should probably call it in to Une."

"Hn." Heero looked back out the window, wondering at the odd occurrence. It could just be a coincidence, but something told him that it wasn't.

Duo's hand hovered over the keyboard for a moment, but he didn't begin typing. He appeared to be lost in thought for a moment. Then, rather suddenly, he spoke. "Maybe it was Trowa."

"Trowa?" Heero blinked in surprise. "Why would Trowa refuse to identify himself?"

"I dunno." Duo said with a shrug. "But he said the same thing happened to him." Duo cocked an eyebrow. "He thought it was you."

"Me?"

Duo straightened. "You mean it wasn't?"

"No. Why would I…?"

Duo had shoved the remainder of his sandwich into his mouth and was already typing.

The monitor began beeping, and suddenly Trowa's face appeared on the screen. He had clearly just been woken up. "Something wrong?" He asked.

"Dude…you…" Duo took in his appearance fully—tousled hair, half-lidded eyes, no shirt. "Were you asleep?" The two could see the plain walls of the trailer, only visible due to the light from Trowa's computer, and the lamp-light streaming through the window.

Trowa failed to fight back a yawn. "It's 4am here."

"Oh sorry."

Heero sat in his chair silently, staring between the two other men. As had become normal for the past few weeks, he had the feeling that something important had been kept from him.

"So I guess you didn't just send a weird message to Heero?"

Trowa blinked sleepily. "No." His eyes turned to Heero. "What…is going on exactly?"

"Someone with a Preventer ID sent me a message but refused to identify himself. I tried to hack the link but they cut it before I could."

Trowa was nodding before Heero finished his explanation. "That's the same thing that happened to me, but…I managed to trace the link—at least a little—before they cut it."

"And…?" Duo prompted.

Trowa shook his head. "Well, I'd thought it was you at first." He said a little sheepishly. Heero nodded to indicate that he'd already known. Glancing at Duo, Trowa continued. "I've got an idea." At the confused looks of the other two pilots, he just said. "I've talked to Une about it." He hesitated, before adding. "I'll tell you when I know more. Don't worry about it."

Heero and Duo shared a look and then simultaneously leaned forward. "You know something." Heero said with a somewhat harsh intensity in his voice.

"I do." Trowa confirmed easily. He wasn't the least bit intimidated. "But as of now it's confidential. In any case, I can't share it over a video chat."

"Oh come on, man!" Duo nearly whined. "At least give us a hint."

Trowa shook his head again, and fought back another yawn. "I can't. Just…just know that…in the event that they try to contact you again, giving your name will probably not be dangerous. I believe that they already know a lot more about us than we think." His eyes darted to somewhere off screen for a moment before turning back to the other two. "Is that all you wanted?"

"Uhh yea." Duo said.

Trowa nodded. "Alright then. If you'll excuse me."

"'Night dude." Duo said.

Trowa nodded with another yawn before cutting the link.

* * *

In his trailer, Trowa picked up a small piece of paper. Someone had slipped it under his door a few days before. The note had given him chills. He flipped it open and read it again. In a typed, plain font read:

_Heero Yuy_

_Preventer ID: 002570-SP001_

As his eyes scanned down all the information—Heero's birthday, home address, former profession, age—he wondered yet again at its meaning. It ended on the oddest note.

_Note: likes ice cream but only on hot days._

The message was so unusual that he wasn't sure quite what to make of it. It contained no mention of Heero's abilities, and no mention of any reason that the person should want to seek revenge against the man. And yet, Trowa found himself oddly disquieted. The note contained too much information. Too much information about trivial things. Even after years of knowing Heero, there were things that he hadn't known. He supposed that it would be easy enough to find out Heero's former profession, age, anniversary, and birthday. But Heero would have taken care to keep his home address out of any public records. And yet a relatively small amount of hacking into the Preventers' records had indeed confirmed that the address on the note was correct.

He stared again at the last sentence. _Likes ice cream but only on hot days._

He'd initially suspected that it was code for something? He'd sent the message along to Une, but her experts had yet to come up with anything about the last sentence.

She had agreed that there was a disquieting amount of information contained within the note, but said that as far as she could see the note was likely a boast to show how much information the enemy—whoever they were—had access to.

Which led them to another question: could there be a spy in the Preventers?

It seemed like a logical conclusion, but Trowa wasn't so sure. That explanation seemed too simple. And why would they broadcast their knowledge if they indeed had a spy.

A large yawn distracted him from his thoughts, and he decided to continue his deliberations in the morning.

Standing, he stretched, but his eyes suddenly locked onto something. On the rug near his door was a folded piece of paper.

He stared in surprise at it for a moment before hurriedly crossing the room to grab it.

He flipped it open and tensed as he read it over.

_Miliardo Peacecraft_

_Alias: Zechs Merquise_

_Codename: Wind_

As his eyes scanned down the information—age, birthday, Preventer ID number, relationship status—a feeling of anxiety settled into his stomach.

Again the note ended oddly.

_Note: Appreciates Champagne but not pink._

Trowa had no idea what to make of the last sentence, but one fact stood out above the others.

Someone had been there. They'd been there recently. Yet everything was silent now. The animals weren't making any noises. The silence of a night on a space station was nearly absolute. There were none of the chirping bugs or croaking frogs that one could expect to find on Earth.

His thoughts turned to the circus animals. Which one had the strongest nose? Which one could he use to track the scent on the letter?

He grabbed his jacket and shoes, pulling them on hurriedly and then slipped a gun into his belt. Crossing to the door, he cracked it open and peered out.

There was no one in sight. To be safe, however, he pulled out his gun. He hurriedly descended the steps but then gasped in surprise when his foot landed on the ground with a wet squish. He felt his foot grow cold as the water soaked through his shoe and sock.

With a face void of emotion, he looked around at the camp. Tarpaulins were covering all of the crates. The fire pit around which the performers gathered was no longer even smoking. The fire wood had been moved away somewhere. The animals' cages had been moved inside of the big tent. Puddles were covering the ground. A feeling of dejection settled into his stomach as the truth hit him. It had rained.

It had rained the night that he'd received the first note as well.

Whoever had come, their scent had long been washed away.

With one last look around, he climbed back into his trailer and removed his wet shoe and sock. He dropped tiredly onto his bed and stared at the note, reading over it again.

Something was wrong about it. Something…There was too much information, but it didn't all seem right. His brain was still too fuzzy to be processing things quickly.

He read it a third time.

_Miliardo Peacecraft_

_Alias: Zechs Merquise_

_Codename: Wind_

Age…birthday….Preventer ID number…relationship status…

Relationship status.

That was it.

The note read: dating Lucrezia Noin.

Trowa cocked his head and blinked.

Milliardo Peacecraft was engaged to Noin. He had proposed shortly after the attack on the Preventers' headquarters. The engagement was common knowledge among the Preventers, but it had not been announced publicly.

The information was outdated.

So, Trowa concluded, if there was a spy in the Preventers, they should have known that. Where were they getting their information?

And such personal information as well. _Appreciates Champagne but not pink. _That made no sense to him.

One thing seemed clear to him though. He needed it to rain again. That would be easy enough. A quick frolic through the station's weather control system and he would be all set. He yawned a wide, jaw-cracking yawn.

He could do it in the morning.

* * *

"Well I suppose we asked for a mission." Duo said, staring over the balcony at the warehouse they had just entered. In the darkness, they couldn't see much, but the dim light filtering through the high windows was enough to allow them to see the familiar forms of mobile suit parts standing in the warehouse. "How is it that no one notices these things?"

The warehouse was large—apparently formerly used for military purposes. Though 'formerly' was the operative word. By all evidence, someone was still using the facility.

Duo looked around for a light switch, and then failing to find one, lit a flare and tossed it down. He realized a moment later that if there was any kind of fuel on the floor, both he and Heero would be history. With an alarmed gasp, he nearly fell over the rail trying to grab the flare again. It slipped through his fumbling fingers and continued on its trajectory.

Duo clenched his eyes shut, awaiting an explosion and his inevitable death, but besides a small tap that indicated that the flare had hit the floor, nothing happened.

Heero, who hadn't moved during Duo's entire display, just stared down silently as the flare illuminated the clearly salvaged mobile suit parts in the room beneath them. Someone was trying to construct mobile suits using them—and judging by the progress made, they knew what they were doing.

"They knew we were coming." Heero noted motioning to a shuttle clearly loaded up and ready to take off. "Though I'd guess they weren't expecting us so soon."

"Huh." Duo looked at the shuttle in question. "Or maybe they did, but just didn't have enough time to evacuate everything."

Heero nodded, noting, as Duo had, that there were conspicuously empty spots were something large had recently been.

"What do we do?" Duo asked.

"Call Une." Heero ordered. "I'm going to check the building for any stragglers. With that he leapt over the rail.

"Wha…?" Duo leaned over the rail and looked down to where Heero had landed in a crouch nearly twenty feet below. "By yourself?" Duo shouted to him.

"Of course!" Heero called back. He was already walking away.

"But…!" What could he say? Could he admit that Une had ordered him not to let Heero out of his sight? Duo was fully aware that Heero was a loose canon. Especially at the moment. But Heero's plan did make sense.

Duo furrowed his eyebrows and with an annoyed groan pulled out his phone. True to his luck, he had no reception inside the warehouse, and he was forced to go outside to make the call.

The warehouse would prove to be abandoned. Heero and Duo spent hours sweeping the place for any indication of who had been using it. However they came up empty handed. Une promised to send more preventers to guard the site and carriers to ship the parts to a Preventers' facility for inspection and dismantlement. Heero and Duo were ordered to remain on site and be alert to anyone who may return for their weapons.

It would be hours before their relief arrived, but Heero at least, was relieved for the distraction. While Duo guarded the entrance to the warehouse, Heero continued scouring the building for any clues. The find was significant. It didn't compare to a battle or espionage, but it made him feel better about the situation.

* * *

Old, worn out sneakers splashed through puddles, sending water splashing onto equally worn-out jeans. A long overcoat gave the figure little shelter from the rain, but it didn't really matter. The colony's climate control system would never produce weather harsh enough to get her sick. A light chill and the occasional holiday snow-fall was the worst that it ever had.

The odd glitch in the colony's system that produced two nights of rain in a row was surprising, but she wasn't very worried about it. The colony was old. It happened from time to time.

The figure stuck to the shadows, darting down alleyways, behind cars, slowly making its way out of the high-rise buildings of the city and to the outskirts.

She'd been waiting for this. She'd done her research. She'd prepared. She'd made the trip twice, bringing rather insignificant letters, just to warn him. Now it was time for her to act.

Her foot caught on a cobblestone and she stumbled before catching her balance and continuing on her path.

Occasionally, she would cast a glance over her shoulder to see if anyone was following her.

She rounded a corner and stopped, pressing herself back into the shadow of the wall, breathing heavily. She scanned the area again. It was too late for many people to be on the streets. No one was around.

With a deep breath, she darted out of the shelter of the buildings and into the field where currently a group of trailers were parked.

This was her only hope now. She just hoped that these people were as noble as they seemed to be.

She reached the grouping of trailers and darted behind a stack of crates. Her hand strayed momentarily to her pocket where a third note was resting before she pulled it out again.

She stepped out, only to be greeted by a loud roar. With a gasp, she stumbled backwards and darted behind another crate. Shaking in terror, she poked her head out from behind the crate. A large lion was up, pacing around a cage in agitation. The thin steel bars that made up the cage did not look strong enough to keep the beast at bay. She swallowed, gripping her coat tighter around her throat. There hadn't been a lion the last two times.

"Can I help you?"

With a gasp, she whipped around. She would have screamed, but before she had time to make a sound a hand covered her mouth.

"Shh." Green eyes met hers. "I'm sorry that I scared you." Apparently sure that she wouldn't try to scream again, he let her go.

She swallowed and backed up a step.

"He won't hurt you." The man told her indicating the lion. He walked over to it and bravely stuck his hand into the cage. The lion calmed and came over to him. He pet the lion's head for a few moments before looking back toward her. He seemed to be oblivious to the rain.

"Were you looking for someone?" He asked.

She swallowed. "Are you…are you Trowa Barton?" She asked, hoping that her voice sounded at least a little confident.

He turned fully toward her. "That depends."

"I…" She hesitated, looking him over. He didn't appear to have a gun, but he was a rather large man.

He waited patiently as she seemed to deliberate what to say.

"I know who attacked the Preventers base." She announced. "And I know who kidnapped Audrey Yuy."

* * *

A/N: I hope you enjoyed! Thanks to all of you who reviewed. Your input is always appreciated.


	6. Deliverance

Chapter 6—Deliverance

"Repeat that." Trowa ordered. Rain beat down on his head and shoulders, not hard enough soak through his jacket but enough to cause his hair to stick to his face. In the darkness, the shrouded woman stood tensely. Trowa wondered if she might run. He wondered if she knew that she didn't stand a chance of outrunning him.

He shifted his weight, and was briefly surprised at how she shrank back. He did not mean to frighten her. Unfortunately it was a reaction that he occasionally got. Even though he was a person who had helped to reestablish peace in the Earth Sphere, a Gundam would always be a symbol of war—its pilot forever a reminder of that violent age.

Trowa stood still, wondering just how much this woman knew about him. If she was the person who had been sending him the odd messages—and he had every reason to believe that she was—then it was likely that she knew quite a bit.

Unfortunately he knew next to nothing about her. She was not what he had expected. He'd expected a man, to be completely honest. A confident one that exuded at least some air of competence. Not a trembling girl that flinched at his every movement. But he had seen great things from people he'd expected little out of, and so he wouldn't dismiss her just yet. She may be an enemy. Or she may be an informant. A turncoat perhaps. He didn't know.

"I…I know who attacked the Preventer's base on Earth. And I know who kidnapped the wife of the other gundam pilot."

"Kidnapped?" He repeated the word.

She took a step back. "You…you didn't know?"

He raised his hands to show her that he bore her no ill will. "Come on." He said nodding his head toward his trailer. "Let's get out of the rain."

He motioned for her to follow him. Nervously, she did. Trowa could tell by her hesitating steps and by the way her eyes darted around that she was still close to fleeing.

He led her into the small, simply furnished trailer, and watched silently as she took a quick look around, taking note of his simple bed, computer on the desk, small table and chairs, and tiny kitchenette.

As he closed the door, he said quietly. "You'll have to be quiet. My sister lives here too, and she's asleep." He motioned with a jerk of his head to a door at the end of the hall, and then gestured toward the table. "Have a seat."

He watched for a moment as she sat and then, after inconspicuously locking the door, crossed the room to the kitchenette. With only the lone light over the stove to illuminate the room, everything was cast in shadow. Had it been a larger area, it may have been eerie. However, the small room filled with Catherine's homey touches—photographs, souvenirs, decorative teacups- to him, always felt cozy.

Trowa turned to the stove and grabbed the tea kettle. Filling it with water, he put it back on the burner. "So, what's this about Audrey Yuy being kidnapped?"

"I…don't…don't you want to know about who's behind the attack on the Preventers?"

"Are they not the same people?" He spoke calmly, despite the fact that he knew that this was probably the biggest lead they had since this whole thing began.

She shifted. "Yes. They are."

"Alright then." He finally sat at the table across from her pushing aside the small flower vase—a necessary decoration according to Catherine—so that he could see her. His eyes were serene, but somehow intense at the same time. He was acutely aware of her mannerisms. She was nervous, constantly shifting, continually darting glances around the room. The woman felt that she was in danger. Of that he was sure. However if she expected that danger to come from him or whether it was another source that caused her fear, he couldn't tell. He just stared at her waiting for her to start.

The woman pulled the hood of her jacket down revealing thick, black hair, high cheekbones, and wide, dark eyes. Her cheeks were slightly flushed. It _was_ rather warm in the trailer, he noted idly. The young woman dropped her eyes into her lap. "She…she's being held in the basement of the old weapons research facility on this colony."

"She's on this colony?" Trowa's narrowed eyes widened. _She's in space? Here?_ Yet again, he was surprised. "Now?"

"Yes." She glanced up at him before dropping her eyes again.

The teapot began to make noise. Trowa quickly jumped out of his chair and pulled it off the stove, casting a glance toward the bedroom down the hall. As much as he cherished his sister, he did not need her coming out to check on him right now.

He grabbed two mugs and two teabags and fixed them both cups of tea.

"What is the security like?" He asked placing one of the mugs on the table for her. Instead of sitting, he chose to lean back against the counter and cross his arms.

"In that building?" She asked. "Not very much. Most of the members have evacuated to other hiding places. They don't stay in one place for very long. They haven't moved her yet though. It would be too hard. People might see her. And…they…they hurt her…she's…sick."

His face darkened slightly, and he felt an odd sort of anger swell within him. It was true that he did not know Audrey very well, but the few times that he had met her she had always seemed like a kind, cheerful person. And she'd brought his friend so much happiness…more than anyone could have imagined the cold perfect soldier capable of feeling. She didn't deserve what they were doing to her.

He shifted his weight slightly, noticing idly that the young woman flinched at even that small movement. He didn't care much anymore about that. There were other things to worry about for the moment. "And tonight?"

"Tonight?" She asked. He could see her small hands tighten around the teacup.

"Is there anyone there tonight?"

"There shouldn't be." She lifted her tea and took a sip.

He glanced under his bed to where he kept most of his weapons stored. "You know the layout?" He asked. His own tea was completely forgotten. Scenarios were flashing through his mind, completely drowning out a voice in the back of his head that was telling him that what he was planning was foolhardy and dangerous.

The young woman nodded.

"Good." He pushed himself off the counter and with a decided step, headed around the table and grabbed his phone. "Wait here." He said, before disappearing from the trailer.

Standing just outside the trailer door, huddling close to the door to escape the rainfall, he made a quick, precautionary phone call. He spoke tersely, giving very little explanation. Then without even a warning, hung up and turned his phone off. He would not be needing it tonight.

With that taken care of, he stepped back into his trailer. Without any preamble, he crossed the room, grabbed to young woman, pulling her from her chair, and spun her to face the wall. She gasped in surprise, but her surprise quickly turned into shocked outrage as Trowa began patting her down for weapons. She gasped again as his hands strayed to her thighs, but by the time she thought to react, he had already moved on.

"Shh!" He ordered, glancing toward Catherine's room, before continuing his search. A moment later, he stood back. "Alright. Let's go." He said, grabbing some keys.

The young woman spun toward him and pressed her back into the wall. Her face was flushed and angry. Trowa chose to ignore it. He had more important things to worry about than women and their idiosyncrasies.

His gaze had darkened, letting the woman know that he would brook no argument.

She flinched at the look. "Go?"

He straightened. If he was impatient with her, it didn't show on his face. "Yes. If you're right, then we will be retrieving Audrey."

"Tonight?" She flinched backward. This was not at all part of her plan. She was just supposed to slip him another note and leave. This was too much. Too dangerous. There had to be some way out of it. "But…but…Wouldn't we need to prepare?"

"What for? You said there was no one there. You also said she was sick. There's no point in leaving her there." He bent over and pulled out a box from under his bed. Opening the box, he began drawing out large weapons. "Just in case." He said to her with a small, disarming smile. She found that the smile relaxed her, but only slightly. There was still a stranger with at least five different guns strapped to his person, trying to convince her to sneak into a dangerous compound to retrieve a hostage.

Fully armed, he made his way to the door, and held it open for her. She hesitated but then seeing that she had no other choice, crossed the room and slipped outside, giving him a worried look the whole way.

He led her across the lawn to a truck. "Get in." He ordered.

* * *

She directed him through dim streets and narrow alleyways until they finally broke free of the dense city. She had pulled her hood up again almost the moment that they had left the field where the circus was located. She kept her head bowed and shied away from the light of streetlamps as they passed them. It led Trowa to suspect that while he made her nervous, someone else had the woman positively terrified.

He drove with the lights off. There was no need to attract unnecessary attention. She told him the turns, and he navigated easily through the darkness. It was like he'd gone there before.

The finally reached the back door of the compound. Trowa turned off the engine and stepped out. His eyes darted around momentarily taking note of every window, door, and shadow. Apparently satisfied that they were alone, he came around to her side of the truck and helped her down.

It wasn't lost on her that he had drawn a small pistol.

"You first." He said, nudging her ahead of him.

"But…"

"You may seem harmless enough, but I'm no fool." He said, glancing at her before turning his gaze back to the dark alleyway. "If this is some sort of trap then you'd do best to tell me now."

"It's no trap." Her nervousness had increased tenfold and she stumbled away from him.

He grabbed her arm and steered her toward the door. "Then you shouldn't have a problem going first."

With tense shoulders, she moved to the backdoor and swiftly punched the access code on the panel beside it. With a small beep and a click, the door opened.

Trowa's eyebrows furrowed slightly but he didn't comment.

The young woman stepped into the dark hall, nervously glancing around. Trowa followed her and quietly shut the door behind himself. The hallway was wide. It led him to suspect that the door they had just come through had probably once been used for deliveries.

He nudged her forward. She tensed, but walked on, nervously glancing at each door they passed. Although Trowa was not as outwardly nervous as the young woman, he did have an eerie feeling about the situation. He had snuck into enemy bases more times than he could honestly remember, but at least then he'd known who the enemy was. He had known what they were capable of. He'd known what he would find when he finally reached his destination.

As he passed the equally-spaced, nondescript doors of the darkened hallway, he mused with a sort of grim humor that he had no idea what he was in for.

The woman stopped at a doorway. Trowa noted that the door was labeled 'stairs.' He squared his shoulders and nodded for her to open it. He was doing this for Heero.

She led him down two flights of stairs and into a large, high-ceilinged room. She looked around briefly, but then apparently determining that everything was safe, led him across the room.

Trowa's unease increased as he spotted the half-assembled machines around the chamber. They should not be there. He recognized some of them instantly as parts integral in the construction of mobile suits.

His eyes strayed to the woman in front of him, but she had already reached another door. She quickly punched in another code and then peeked through. Judging that all was safe, she slipped through. Trowa followed after her. His grip on his weapon tightened as he looked around.

It was another hallway, sleek and white and narrow. She led him through the hallway to a small sitting area. A break room, he guessed. Soda machines in the corner were still buzzing, keeping the drinks cool. There were potato chip bags in the trash can near the door. The place looked lived-in.

The young woman glanced at Trowa nervously and then swallowed. She stepped over to a door in the corner. "She's in there."

Trowa stiffened. "Open it."

She bit her lip. "I…I can't."

He narrowed his eyes.

"I don't know the code." She clarified and he could see that she wasn't only nervous. She was afraid of him. "No one is allowed in there."

He frowned and gazed at the keypad. It was a simple lock—one that he could handle in a matter of minutes. "Hands in the air." He directed.

She gazed at him in confusion, but he twitched the hand holding the gun and her hands shot up above her head.

"Turn and face the wall, and put your hands on the wall. Don't move until I tell you to."

Swallowing hard, she turned and obeyed, and Trowa could swear that he heard a small sob. Her hood was still pulled up shrouding her face though, so he couldn't be sure.

Keeping one eye on her, and his pistol in his hand, Trowa knelt down before the lock and quickly broke the cover loose. As he got to work breaking the lock, he could see that the young woman had turned her head to watch him.

The lock was just what he'd expected of a former military establishment. Any other person would have had trouble with it, but he was used to such things. After only a few minutes, there was a small beep, and the lock clicked.

Trowa pushed the door open.

He was immediately assaulted by the smell. It was blood, feces, urine, and disease all compounded together. Trowa hardly even flinched at it. His eyes had locked onto the figure lying crumpled on the floor. He stared at it for a moment and then took a step back, gazing around the lounge to be sure that no one had come in after him. He turned his gaze to the young woman whose name, he realized, he'd forgotten to ask.

She stared at him in fear.

"Inside." He motioned with the pistol.

She shook her head, and this time, he was sure that he heard a sob.

"I'm not going to lock you in." He assured her. "I'm just making sure that _you_ don't lock _me_ in." He gestured again to the horrendous room. "So get inside."

She was shaking and sniffling, but Trowa had no pity for the girl as she moved into the room.

"Over there, in the corner." He directed her to the corner farthest from the door.

She followed his order, holding a hand to cover her mouth and nose. Her other hand was still in the air.

After assuring himself that the door wouldn't close and lock them all in, Trowa ventured into the room.

The person he found hardly resembled the young woman he'd seen on Heero's arm for the past few years. She was all skin and bones. Her long hair was matted with dried blood. Dark bruises and dried blood covered her skin.

He knelt down beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

She flinched at the contact and her eyes opened slightly. They locked dazedly onto him, and he could see that his presence frightened her. Beginning to whimper, she tried to pull herself away. The movement caused her to cough, sending blood spattering from her lips.

"Don't worry. I'm here to help you." He said. "My name's Trowa. Do you remember me? I'm Heero's friend."

Whether it was the dim light, or whether her vision just couldn't focus, Trowa couldn't tell. He could tell, though that despite squinting her eyes, she couldn't recognize his face. The reference to Heero had seemed to slightly calm her, however.

"Just stay calm. I'm going to get you out of here." He pulled off his jacket and gently wrapped it around her. Then, carefully, he lifted her from the floor. She gasped and whimpered weakly again at the movement, and then proceeded to cough up more blood.

_It looks like I found her just in time._ Trowa thought, looking down at her.

She was far lighter than Catherine. And given that the two women were of similar size, he figured that she was far lighter than she should be.

_Hopefully, I'm in time anyway._

He strode quickly out of the room with the weak, shivering woman in his arms. Her head dropped limply against his shoulder. She appeared to be barely coherent.

"Stay with me." He said gently.

He glanced back to the nameless young woman. She had followed him out of the room, and was taking deep breaths of the fresh air as he led them down the hall.

He turned his attention back to the broken woman in his arms. He felt that he should say something to Audrey, something to assure her of the situation. Her eyes were glazed over. A dazed, confused fear was etched into her face. Her breaths were coming in choked, gurgled gasps, but even her coughs sounded weak. He wanted to tell her something reassuring—something to get that look of fear off of her face—but he couldn't think of anything to say.

It was probably better if he didn't speak, he reasoned. If there was anyone around, his voice would certainly alert them to their presence.

They reached the door to the hangar, and Trowa stopped and looked back at the young woman behind him.

"The door." He said, nodding his head to it. His hands were clearly full. It made him feel vulnerable to not have at least one weapon in his hand, but he couldn't hold Audrey any other way, and there was no way he was giving a gun to the other woman.

The nameless woman quickly moved around him and opened it. Trowa nodded his head in the direction of the hangar. "Go in front."

It almost seemed too easy. As they retraced their steps toward the old service door, Trowa's nervousness grew. There was no indication that anyone else was at the old facility, and yet experience told him to never drop his guard. They made it back up the stairs and into the wide hall without any problems. As they neared the back door, Trowa got the odd feeling that someone would be waiting at the truck to stop them. Yet when they made it back into the small, dark alleyway, there was no one there.

He quickly pushed the nameless woman into the truck and then laid Audrey down on the seat with her head in the other woman's lap.

Without wasting any time, he shut the door and ran around to jump in the driver's seat.

The ride to the hospital was mostly silent. Rain still poured outside. No one was out on the streets. The city was dark. Most people would have been in bed at such an hour. There were hardly any windows lit. Only the neon lights of a 24-hour bar and the oddly luminescent street lights told that there was life at all on the colony.

A streetlight flickered as they turned onto the street where the hospital was located. They could see it looming above the nearby buildings like a beacon in the darkness.

Although the ride was not a long one, the stress of being moved had apparently been too much for Audrey, and she had slipped into unconsciousness. Only her raspy, hitched breaths broke the silence.

The only words exchanged between Trowa and the nameless girl were short and quipped.

"Where are we going?"

"The hospital."

"Let me out."

"No."

The truck pulled up to the emergency entrance of the hospital. The nameless girl still sat silently and sent nervous glances between Trowa and the hospital doors. Trowa got out of the truck and circled around to the passenger side. The sound of the rain hitting the roof filled his ears, and he momentarily thought that he may have programmed the rain settings a little too high. He brushed the thought aside. There was nothing to do about it now, and as it happened, the weather may have worked in their favor.

As he pulled the passenger side door open, he could see nurses rushing out of the doors toward the truck.

"I need a stretcher." He called to them before sticking two fingers to Audrey's neck to feel a pulse. It was weak, but it was still there.

A stretcher was brought immediately, and Trowa helped the nurses to lift the battered, dirty woman out of the truck and onto it.

The nurses wasted no time in pushing the stretcher toward the doors. They were already fitting a breathing mask onto Audrey's face.

Trowa, entirely unsure of what his role in such a situation should be, tried to follow the nurses and stretcher. He was prevented from following them through the hospital doors however.

"You'll need to move your vehicle." One of nurses told him as the stretcher was rushed down the hall away from him. Trowa blinked at her and then looked back to where Audrey had just been pushed through some double doors. After having just found her, he was reluctant to let her go again. There was obviously something going on—something more than it appeared. Trowa had no idea what part Audrey played in it. Whether she was just a victim of circumstance, a target, or bait to get to Heero, he didn't know. Any of them were possible he supposed.

"Sir." Trowa blinked down at the nurse. "You can't leave your vehicle unattended in the emergency lane."

"Unattended?" He glanced over his shoulder to where his truck sat. It was empty. The passenger side door was left open. The young woman was gone.

Gone. Their informant. The person who could have answered their questions about who was leading the attacks, who could have possibly answered questions about the attackers' future plans...was gone. Trowa shut his eyes for a moment and brought a hand up to rub his temple.

"Sir, are you alright?"

"I…" He turned back to the nurse, his shock at having let that young woman slip through his fingers had left him reeling.

The nurse put a hand on his arm. "Are you alright?" She repeated. "Are you injured as well?"

"I…" He shook himself. "No. I'm fine." Turning on his heel, he started heading back toward the doors. "I'll move the truck." He only made it a few steps before a thought struck him. He stopped and hurried back over to the nurse. "Please…I believe that her name is Audrey Yuy. Her fingerprints and DNA record are on file with the Preventers. Can you please confirm her identity?" There was no way that he was calling Heero without that confirmation. "This is very important."

The nurse stared at him oddly.

Feeling frustrated, he quickly dug into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. Producing his Preventer badge, he held it up for her to see. "My name is Trowa Barton, Preventer Operative."

The nurse's mouth formed a small 'o' and she nodded enthusiastically. "Alright I'll do the tests."

Trowa nodded, slipping his badge and wallet back into his pocket. "That woman is very important, but as you can see, she is also in a great deal of danger. Do not let anyone who is not a doctor near her until I get back, do you understand?"

She nodded again.

"Good." Trowa said, and then turned away to go move his truck.

* * *

The shrill ring of Duo's cell phone broke the tense silence of the cockpit. Duo blinked in surprise. While he would be glad to be spared Heero's brooding glare and general morose attitude for a few minutes, the call in itself was worrying. Hardly anyone called his cell phone. Usually, a Preventer would contact him by the ship's com link. The only calls that came to his cell phone were personal ones—usually from Hilde—or ones that Heero was not supposed to be privy to.

He glanced at the caller ID and jumped out of his chair. This was probably one of the latter.

He had to get out of the room before Heero got curious. He needn't have worried. Heero only spared him a glance, before turning his gaze out of the ship's window. The discovery of war machines on that colony as well as the discovery that they had been too late to prevent some of those machines from being transported elsewhere had left the other former pilot in a dark mood. Duo understood completely. The war that had consumed so much of their lives, and destroyed so many others had only ended a little over five years before. To have such a thing happen now, when tensions were still so high and wartime rivalries and slights were still fresh in the minds of many of the Earth Sphere's rulers, was bad news.

Duo glanced one more time at his gloomy partner before slipping out of the door and answering the phone with a loud. "Hey, Babe!" _Good. That'll throw him off._

The other end of the line was silent for a moment. Then, the person spoke. "Umm…Duo?"

He glanced down the short hallway to see that Heero hadn't followed him out. Dropping his voice a few decibels, he answered. "Yep. What's up, Trowa?"

"You need to get to the colony BC4009, now."

Duo blinked at the sudden order. "Why?"

"You won't believe me."

"Try me."

"Is Heero there?"

"He's in the other room."

"Good. If you plan to get here in one piece, don't say anything to him."

"Uhh…ok?" Duo narrowed his eyes. "What's—"

Trowa's next words brought all of Duo's thoughts to a screeching halt. "Audrey is alive."

He was, for once, at a loss for words. His mouth hung open, and he cast a glance toward the room he'd left Heero in. Fearing that his friend might overhear something, he hurried down the hall and into his tiny bedroom. After he'd shut the door behind him, he asked. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. She was being held hostage on this colony. I got tipped off to it. I had the hospital run a DNA test to confirm her identity."

Duo's mouth continued to work to form words. Finally, he came out with. "H…how?"

"I'm not sure. I haven't had a chance to talk to her. She was apparently kidnapped the day that the Preventers headquarters was attacked, and has been held hostage ever since."

"Why?"

"I'm not…" He paused. "It looks like they…interrogated her." Duo felt his stomach clench into knots. He knew very well what sort of interrogation Trowa was talking about. "And then held her for some sort of collateral." Duo heard him take a shaky breath. "Look, Duo, she's very sick, so don't say anything to him. We don't want to get his hopes up. Just…hurry."

Duo swallowed. He knew that his face was white. "Oh…Ok."

* * *

When Duo came back into the cockpit, Heero immediately noticed the change in his demeanor. His face was pale, and when his eyes locked with Heero's he turned away guiltily.

"Something wrong?"

Duo swallowed. "We have to go to BC4009."

"What?" Heero straightened and spun toward him. "What for?"

"A…" Duo swallowed, wondering how he would explain this in such a way that it wouldn't send Heero into a towering rage or cause him to break all space traffic laws in his race to reach the colony. Duo cleared his throat, and sat in his seat, trying to appear less nervous than he was. "Trowa just called." He answered truthfully, noticing the way that Heero's eyebrow rose and he shifted in his chair. "The organization that perpetrated the attacks on the Preventers headquarters in Sanction apparently has a branch on the colony that he's on right now. An informant tipped him off to the location of their hideout." Duo would have continued speaking, but he was thrown back in his chair as the ship suddenly changed directions and lurched forward. No further explanation was necessary.

Heero had already set the course to the colony in question, and before Duo had even finished speaking the ship was hurtling through space toward it. Duo hurriedly fastened his seatbelt, and then with a frenzied sigh, smoothed a hand through his hair.

"Geez." He said, narrowing his eyes at his partner. "You could warn a guy." Still, he was eternally grateful that he had left out the little bit about Audrey. He sat back in his seat, sending up a silent prayer that they made it to the colony safely and that Audrey was still alive when they reached it. He couldn't help but smile slightly as the ship hurtled past bits of rock and the occasional slower ship.

Heero just glanced over at him. He cocked his eyebrow at the expression on Duo's face, but didn't ask anything.

Duo tried to wipe the smile off his face, but he coudn't manage to do it.

* * *

A/N: Wow it's been a while since I updated this. I had a bit of writer's block on this one, I'll admit. But I'm back, and I hope you enjoyed that!

Thanks to those of you who reviewed. I really appreciate that you took the time to do so, and also that you're being so supportive! I'm so glad to hear you're enjoying this!

Also, a little spoiler: the next chapter will focus on Heero and Audrey's reunion. If anyone has any ideas of anything they would like to see when our lovers reunite, let me know, and I'll try to work it in.


	7. Raindrops

**Warning: Mentions of abusive and non-consentual situations.**

Chapter 7- Raindrops

Une drummed her fingers nervously on her desk. Milliardo and Noin sat across from her, chatting quietly. Une had sent for them after Trowa called her over an hour before. Although he'd told her not to expect him to call back for at for a while, the tone of his voice as well as the nature of the message had put her on edge.

"If I don't call back in two hours, have someone inspect the weapons research facility on Colony BC4009.

A light rain was falling outside, leaving streaks along her window. Heavy clouds hovered in the distance, promising more bad weather in the near future and making the atmosphere in the office even more oppressive. Down below, people rushed about the landing strips, trying to get as many Preventer operatives as possible en route to their missions before the storm hit.

Suddenly, her phone rang, shattering the quiet of the office, and causing the three Preventers' officers to jump. Une checked the caller ID, nodded to Une and Milliardo, and picked up the phone.

"Trowa?"

"Yes." The young man said, and something in the tone of his voice again put Une on edge. "Are you alone?"

"No. Noin and Milliardo are here. Trowa…what's going on?"

"I…" Une waited for him to say something. She was fully aware that Noin and Milliardo had gone silent and were staring at her intently. After a moment's reflection, she put the call on speakerphone.

"I…" Trowa started again, but again he fell silent.

"Are you alright?" Une prodded. She was getting positively worried for the young man.

"Yes, yes. I'm fine. I just…" He stopped. "I'm not sure how to explain this without making obvious my complete breach of protocol."

A muffled roar filtered through the room as a plane took off from the base. The three in Une's office hardly heard it. They shared a worried glance before Une leaned a little closer to the speakerphone. "Why don't you start from the beginning?"

His reply was immediate and a little flustered. "No that would take too long, and I don't have the time. I'll just give you the basics." They could hear him take a deep breath. "I have good news and bad news. An informant came to me with a tip earlier tonight."

"Again?" Une asked. "So soon?"

"Yes, well…I may have lured her in."

"You met the informant? A woman?"

"Yes." Trowa's response seemed somewhat strangled. "She told me that she knew who had staged the attack on the Preventers' headquarters, and..."

When he paused again Une cut in. "Okay…what's the bad news?"

"Well…that wasn't exactly the good news. The bad news is that…the informant disappeared before I could get…that…information…out of her."

"Oh." Une frowned.

"But the good news is…this is hard to believe, but I've had the hospital run DNA and fingerprint checks and…"

"Hospital?" Noin asked worriedly.

"Trowa, where are you?" Une added.

She heard him sigh in apparent frustration. "I'm at the central hospital of Colony BC4009. I'm here with Audrey…Audrey Yuy."

Une's voice switched from worried and coaxing to nearly hostile. "Trowa this…"

"It's not a joke. I'm not lying. Audrey was abducted the day that the HQ was attacked and she was being held on this colony. The informant found me and led me to her. I told you that I ran checks. It's really her. The papers to prove it are in my hand."

The three Preventers stared at each other in surprise. Disbelief and hope mixed in their expressions, and none of them had any idea how to respond. There were so many questions to ask, but none seemed appropriate. Finally Noin spoke up. "How is she?"

"Bad." He stated flatly before continuing. "But she'll probably pull through." The word 'probably' seemed to hang in the air like a dark cloud. He paused for a moment. "I really can't talk long. I'm not supposed to be on the phone in here anyway."

Une understood that. She also understood that as delicate as the situation was, there were some things that could wait. There were more important issues. "Have you called Heero?" She asked.

"No…no I called Duo." He paused again. "They're on the way here."

"Alright. I'll send a few units to you as soon as possible." She nodded to Milliardo to let wordlessly ask him to get on that. "I know I don't need to say this, but stay with Audrey until they arrive to relieve you. Be careful and…" Une narrowed her eyes slightly. "We'll talk about those breaches of protocol later."

* * *

They made it to the colony in record time. While another person may have been frazzled to fly at the speed at which Heero had flown, Duo had been perfectly relaxed most of the way. However, as they'd neared the colony, Duo began to look nervous.

It wasn't lost on Heero that the other pilot had been sending him nervous glances for the past few hours. While Duo had been acting strangely since he'd received that phone call from Trowa, his behavior when they actually landed was positively bizarre. Heero had come to expect odd behavior from the American pilot, but this was almost worrying.

Duo had rushed them through customs—they made it through with ease due to their Preventers badges and the fact that Duo had insisted that they not bring any luggage. Heero had been curious as to why, but Duo's only answer was "I'll come back for it later."

A cab was waiting for them when they left the space port, and after a small conversation between Duo and the driver, the cab shot off into the early afternoon traffic.

Duo was silent for most of the ride—an oddity in itself. He seemed nervous, although whether it was due to the suspicious glare that Heero had been sending him since they got into the cab or due to something else, Heero couldn't figure out. Heero ignored the scenery as they passed it. The artificial sky on the colonies somehow seemed much duller after living on Earth these past few years, and he had seen plenty of tall buildings and strip malls in his life time. These were no different.

Duo was trying to lean casually against the window and stare outside. However every few minutes, his gaze would drift back to Heero. Heero's eyes would narrow suspiciously when their gazes met, and Duo would turn away and try not to look guilty.

Heero had no idea how many times they repeated this, but he knew instantly when they were approaching their destination. Duo's eyes widened, and he shifted, pulling out his phone and quickly sending a text. He drummed his fingers on the armrest for a few seconds before he apparently received a reply.

Then, to Heero's great confusion, Duo sighed in relief, grinned, and sat back in his seat.

The car pulled to a stop, and Heero glanced outside, taking note of their location. "Duo, what is going on?"

Strangely, Duo had led him to a hospital.

"…Trowa's…here." Duo said paying the driver and jumping outside. Heero followed him, as Duo all but skipped into the building.

He apparently knew the room number, because he didn't stop by the nurse's desk.

"Trowa's in the hospital?" With his line of work, it shouldn't be surprising. But Heero had never heard of Trowa missing a jump or anything. And besides, unless something was very serious, he doubted Trowa would have stayed in the hospital for long. Perhaps he'd investigated that tip on his own. Now that he thought about it, Duo had been a little vague about that explanation.

Strangely Duo didn't answer his question. He just led him to an elevator.

Heero's eyes remained glued on Duo as the elevator rose. Duo was leaning against the other wall, still trying to look casual, but failing miserably. His face was pale now, and Heero could see that his muscles were taught. Heero narrowed his eyes and was about to speak when the elevator doors opened.

Duo quickly exited and set a fast pace down the hall. Heero had no choice but to follow. Duo clearly knew where he was going, as he was counting the numbers on the doors. That annoying feeling of frustration was creeping up on him again, at being kept in the dark.

"Duo what—"

"Here." Duo said suddenly, cutting Heero off. He stopped in front of a door, and knocked lightly. A moment later, the door opened and Trowa's face appeared. He surveyed the two ex-pilots. Heero inspected Trowa as well. He didn't look injured, although is jacket and shirt were smudged with what may have been blood.

Trowa's eyes locked with Duo's for a moment. Duo shook his head, and Trowa swallowed almost nervously before turning to Heero.

He appeared to contemplate saying something, but then just pushed the door open a bit more and with a small jerk of his head, motioned for Heero to go inside. Heero blinked at him in confusion. He looked between his two friends, but aside from their nervousness, they were both now unreadable. It wasn't lost on Heero, however, that this situation was somehow important, and so with a sigh, he took a step inside.

The door shut behind him. He glanced over his shoulder, and was surprised to see that the other two hadn't followed him inside.

He glanced around , wondering what was going on. There had to be some explanation for this, but he was at a loss as to what it could be.

His eyes rested on a figure lying in the hospital bed. There was a bandage covering much of the top of the person's face. He couldn't say that he recognized them.

Slowly, he walked to the end of the bed and picked up the chart. He stared at the person in the bed for a moment before dropping his eyes to the name on the chart.

The chart slipped from his suddenly numb fingers to clatter loudly to the floor.

The person in the bed started at the noise. Her eyes flew open, and then with a whimper, she began looking dazedly around the dim room.

Heero took a hesitant step closer, then another. His eyes were wide with disbelief, and he found that he suddenly felt weak. His head was light, and there was a persistent ringing in his ears.

She saw him coming toward her. Her eyes were confused, afraid, and somewhat glazed over.

He swallowed thickly to find his voice. "Audrey?" He asked shakily. His voice came out as hardly more than a whisper. His stomach was churning with nervousness. His hands clenched the bedside rails to keep from shaking. The pristine white hospital room suddenly seemed smaller.

He could see confusion and not a small amount of fear written clearly on her face. She squinted up at him as if she couldn't see him clearly.

Heero glanced momentarily at the IV. It was a heavy painkiller—she probably couldn't.

"It's me." He said, not daring to touch her. "Heero."

Her confusion lifted instantly and she lifted a shaky hand slightly as if trying to reach for him.

"Hee…ro?" Her voice was hoarse, but it was her. He could see it now. The honey-gold hair that stuck out of gaps in the bandages on her head. The blue eyes. Her face was gaunt and far too pale. She was covered in bruises and cuts.

But it was her.

With a sound that was somewhere between a sob and a laugh, he collapsed into the chair beside her bed.

"Heero?" She asked again, and her voice was shaky and panicked.

He reached down and grabbed her hand—it was thin and cold and looked as though it might break if he wasn't careful. He leaned over and dropped his head into the crook of her neck. His eyes burned with unshed tears. All of the pain from the past few weeks, all of his suffering and despair came back to him all at one. It somehow mingled with his joy and disbelief at having been somehow reunited with his wife. It left his head spinning, his body shaking. Could he be so lucky?

Audrey was clearly alarmed by his reaction. He heard her take a shuddering breath, before beginning to sob in earnest.

He quickly lifted his head and laced his fingers in hers. They were fragile and cold, like glass. He nearly dropped it again on impulse, fearful that his prolonged touch may break it.

He suddenly felt the urgent need to explain to her why he hadn't come for her. It was overwhelming. How could she ever forgive him? The answer was that she wouldn't. The mere sight of her brought him to the determined conclusion that he would certainly never forgive himself. He had been trained far better than that. He should have known. He should have investigated all options, never accepted an answer without triple-checking every alternative.

He had failed her.

He knew that he didn't deserve her forgiveness, but, oh, how he needed it. "I…they…" He paused to clear his thoughts before admitting in hardly more than a whisper. "We all thought you were dead."

She continued sobbing, gasping for air. She was sobbing too hard, he realized suddenly. She was having trouble breathing.

The machines around her began to beep frantically, and he could see that what skin on her face wasn't bruised and blackened was turning an unhealthy shade of red.

Suddenly, there was a commotion outside the door, and he heard what sounded like Duo's voice yelling "wait a minute!"

He jumped to his feet, his hand straying to the gun at his hip, as the door was flung open. He realized a moment later, that it was only two nurses.

"Who are you?" One of the nurses asked as the other began fiddling with Audrey's IV and checking her breathing mask.

"I'm Heero Yuy." He said, dropping his hand to his side. "Her husband."

"Oh."

Out of the corner of his eye, Heero could see that Audrey was calming down. Her eyelids started drooping, but her eyes stayed fixed on him.

"You'll need to come with us." The nurse told him.

"Why?" He moved closer to Audrey and fixed them with a glare. Duo and Trowa stepped into the room cautiously, staying away from the action but being there nonetheless should a problem arise.

"You need to check in with the doctor who's in charge of her case." The nurse said. "There are a few things she needs to discuss with you." He didn't move. The nurse was apparently used to such stubborn behavior, for she maintained her patient tone as she clarified. "Some of which are very important."

Heero narrowed his eyes at her, and remained rooted in place.

"We'll stay with her, Heero." Trowa said taking a step forward. "Don't worry."

Beside him, Duo nodded.

Heero glanced back down at Audrey only to realize that she had fallen back into a drug-induced sleep.

He hated to leave her after having just found her again. It wasn't really fair. But, they'd said it was important.

* * *

Heero drummed his fingers on the arm of the chair he was sitting in. His eyes darted around the small office, landing haphazardly on photographs and diplomas without really seeing them. It was a rather cozy room, full of brown bookcases and medical encyclopedias. The chair he was in was extremely comfortable, but he was too distracted to really notice.

He glanced at his watch. How long had he been waiting? It felt like forever, but his watch told him that it had actually been less than five minutes.

He ran a hand through his hair in agitation. His eyes would dart to the door every time he heard someone walk by. Unfortunately, this seemed to be a fairly heavily traveled hallway, and he was constantly shifting and twisting.

Finally the doorknob turned. Heero jumped to his feet even before the door opened.

"You must be Mr. Yuy." A petite red-headed woman in a white doctor's coat said kindly as she walked in. She closed the door silently and extended her hand to him. Heero took it without a word.

"Please sit down." She said motioning to the chair that Heero had just vacated.

"I'm Karen West." She announced, taking a seat across from him. "I will be the head doctor in charge of your wife's case. She quickly pulled out a file and set it on the desk before him. I have a few papers for you to fill out, but before we do that, let me just fill you in on the situation."

Heero swallowed and nodded. He knew that his face was pale, he could feel his hands sweating, and he nervously rubbed them on his pants.

"Now, I understand that this is a stressful situation for all of you." She started. "Let me just start by saying that she is stable for now, but that her condition is very delicate. Audrey was brought in several hours ago, by a Preventer officer. According to him, she had been held in captivity for over a month before he found her. During that period, she was clearly not given enough food or water. She was extremely malnourished and dehydrated when she was brought in. She also sustained multiple fractures on her ribs and arms. As you probably already noticed, her body is covered in bruises and cuts. These sorts of injuries extend to over 70 percent of her body above her legs. Many of her injuries these are badly infected. We have her on antibiotics and pain killers for all of this."

She paused for a moment and stared at him as if giving him time to pose any questions he might have. He simply swallowed thickly, suddenly feeling quite sick, and shook his head.

She nodded and flipped open the file. "Now, her visible injuries aside, she is in very poor shape. Many of her internal organs were badly bruised, although very few of them ruptured enough to cause any permanent damage."

She spoke slowly as she continued, making sure that he understood every word of what she was saying. "Her psychological state is very fragile. She was physically as well as…sexually violated, abused and neglected in ways that no human should every be, and she will likely need years of therapy to recover from the trauma. She may never be the same."

Heero's blood had long run cold. Suddenly the high-pitched ringing in his ears had returned, along with a light-headedness and nausea. Guilt gnawed at him, a debilitating weight in his chest. Without really noticing his own actions, he dropped his head into his hands and fisted them tightly in his hair.

The sight of his jeans and his black boots standing out starkly against her gray carpet would stay forever ingrained in his memory. This moment in all of its pain, stress and heightened emotions would never be forgotten.

"Mr. Yuy?" A voice was calling him from somewhere far away. "Mr. Yuy, can you hear me?"

His sharp eyes suddenly focused, and locked onto her. She flinched back in surprise, and he suddenly realized that she had come around her desk to kneel beside him.

"Here." She held out a glass of water that she had apparently prepared for him.

He stared at it for a moment as if it were foreign, before slowly taking it. The sound of the woman's pager going off did nothing to break the tension in the office. If anything it only added to it.

"Take as long as you need." Dr. Karen told him, laying a gentle hand on his arm and standing up. "You are welcome to stay in here as long as you want. The files for you to fill out are on the table. Other than the allergy information and medical history, they can wait." He nodded, slowly pulling his hands from his hair and sitting up.

"I have to go now." She told him. "If you need anything just call one of the nurses."

Quickly pulling her pager from her belt, she slipped out of the office. The door had hardly closed before Heero jumped from his chair, grabbed the file from the office, and left as well.

* * *

She remembered a small apartment in a dingy little town. She could almost recall the smell of the place, so vivid was it in her memory. She remembered the feeling of coziness, of new beginnings, and of a budding friendship. The warm feeling was quickly flittering away though, only to be replaced by a sense of dread.

She'd left the apartment in search of milk. She tried to tell herself not to go. She could feel that something would happen, but she couldn't think of what.

She had been naïve then. Why did she think that?

Oh, yes. Because she'd been younger then.

How much younger? Several years at least. But that meant that she was older now.

She remembered working late. There was a virus. Everyone was afraid. Heero had caught it, but he was better now. Yes he was better now. He had carried her. She had been so surprised, but he'd made her feel safe when he'd carried her.

Someone had carried her here. Had it been Heero?

Suddenly she hurt. That strange feeling of weightlessness, of numbness, and bliss was quickly fading.

Oh heavens, how it hurt!

Who had done this to her?

She'd been working. But…no…she wasn't a nurse anymore. She worked in the Preventers Headquarters.

It hurt. So much.

But it hadn't been the drunken man in that alleyway who had done this. No. It had been someone else.

Images of a large man, of a darker, dirtier man in a trench coat flashed through her mind, and despite herself, she whimpered.

"Audrey?"

The man grabbed her hair and dragged her across a dim, windowless room. How had she gotten there?

Cold eyes. The man with the cold eyes had brought her there.

"Audrey, wake up." His voice was so much gentler that it had been. He had never called her by name before, had he?

Her hands were in chains. There were cuts on her wrists from where the cuffs had dug into the skin.

"Audrey, you're having a nightmare. Wake up."

A nightmare? This _was_ a nightmare. Every second that she was in this place had been a living nightmare. She choked out a sob as the man grabbed the chain that bound her wrists together and jerked her upwards.

She shut her eyes, waiting for what she knew would come next. Then she felt a hand on her cheek, cool and comforting, and gently caressing. She opened her eyes in panicked confusion.

Her vision had gone blurry, and the dim windowless room seemed brighter somehow. She was lying down, and she could make out the blurry forms of people around her.

"Audrey?"

She knew that voice. How often she'd longed to hear it. Her eyes sought out the source of the voice. He was leaning over her. "Audrey can you hear me?"

She nodded slightly, blinking to try to clear her vision. It finally came further into focus, though she had the distinct sensation that the room was swimming.

Another figure leaned over her. She didn't recognize this one, and she shied away from it. "Are you in pain?" The person asked.

Audrey tensed and glanced at Heero. "It's alright." He said, and then she felt his hand in hers. Somehow the simple gesture made her feel a million times safer. "These are the nurses that have been taking care of you."

Audrey looked back toward the young women, taking in their blue scrubs and friendly smiles. She studied them carefully. For some reason the fact that they were unfamiliar to her made her nervous.

"Audrey?" That was Heero who had spoken. Audrey slowly let her fearful eyes leave the two nurses to settle on Heero. "How do you feel?" He asked. "Do you need something for the pain?"

For some reason that simple question made her eyes tear up. Sniffling, she gave a small nod.

Heero brought a hand out to brush away a lock of hair that had fallen over her face. "Shh. It's alright. You're safe now. Don't worry. I'm not going anywhere." He glanced up toward the two nurses. Audrey looked over as well to see that one had emptied a syringe into her IV. "Will that make her fall asleep?"

"Most likely. It will make her drowsy at the very least." The nurse answered.

Heero nodded.

"One of us will be back in an hour to check up on things. If you need anything, call us."

Heero nodded again, and sat down beside her bed as the nurses walked out.

Audrey could already feel her pain fading away, but she also could feel her thoughts growing fuzzier. Her already weak and heavy limbs now felt like lead.

She turned her gaze toward Heero, and tried to communicate to him that she didn't want to fall asleep again. He just smiled reassuringly and brushed some hair away from her face.

The light touch of his fingers against her skin seemed to heal something in her. Some small part of the horrid, jagged mess that had become her spirit. In that moment, silhouetted against the light from the window, he looked just like an angel. Her very own guardian angel. Wasn't that nice?

Despite the fear and misery that had held her hostage for so long, she felt...safe.

"Just rest." He said. "Everything's okay now."

She continued to stare at him. His silhouette seemed to blur and shine. She had no way to know that that was likely due to the medication she was on. Her eyelids were growing heavy, and despite her best efforts, they fell shut.

* * *

A/N: What? After like, a million years I finally updated? Can it be? Apparently so. "What happened?" you may ask. Well…uhh. I have no excuse. I hit a bit of writer's block, moved to a different country, and focused on my other story while I organized my thoughts on this one. But, now that they're a little more organized than they were, I should hopefully begin updating within more reasonable time frames.

I want to give a big thanks to Acacia Eastbramble, Juliedoo, and Andrian Rei for pulling me out of my slump and letting me know that people were indeed still interested in this piece. Also, a big thanks Stormey Night, XxDesiLuvxX, Sami, Izreina Maxwell, Unmei no Tenshi, invisible-gurl, Joushou-Sensei, Annie-kins, fan-to-fiction, and to everyone else who supported me since I began writing this, and who continued to support me despite the horrid wait.

Let me know what you think, and if you have any suggestions for the upcoming chapters, let me know!


	8. Calm

**Warning: Mention of rape and references to torture.**

Chapter 8- Calm

Barring Heero's case, Duo rarely found himself pitying one of the other Gundam pilots. However, it seemed that he was doing that more and more often lately. Certainly the look on the former Heavyarms pilot's face as he began explaining the situation, was enough to warrant at least a little pity.

Duo could only imagine what Une would say. Then again, he didn't have to imagine. He could hear every word that Une said. He could see her face too. That frustrated, disappointed face. Duo suddenly wished that he had sent Trowa alone to gather his and Heero's belongings from the ship. He could have avoided being privy to this particular conversation.

Trowa's hands were shoved deep into his pockets, and he glared through his bangs at the woman on the screen. "She didn't tell me her name." He repeated.

"You followed a complete stranger into the hideout of the faction that's been terrorizing the Earth Sphere without asking any questions?"

Trowa thought for a minute. "More or less." He said with a small nod.

Duo had to give him credit for not being intimidated at least. Duo himself was certainly doing his best to gain as little attention as possible.

"That was dangerous, Trowa."

"But it worked out." He countered.

Une clearly had to give him that. "What did she tell you?"

He raised his head and sent her a slightly self-debasing smile. "Not much. I think she intended to tell me a lot, but when she got to the point where Audrey was sick and left unguarded in a basement somewhere, I decided to leave the explanation for another time. I never counted on her running away."

Duo could tell from the look on Une's face, that she couldn't quite bring herself to blame him for that. That didn't stop the woman from bringing a hand up to pinch the bridge of her nose though.

After all they were still left with the obvious problem of having lost a very valuable source of information. "And you have no idea where she may have gone?"

"No. I just turned around and she'd disappeared."

Une sighed. "Alright then. You'll have to find her. She's clearly got more information on us than she should, and I have little doubt that she's in very serious danger right now. Trowa, in your opinion, is hospital now sufficiently guarded?" He nodded. Duo had to agree. With the armed patrols around the perimeter of the hospital, at the entrances, and even in the hallways, there was not much more that the Preventers could have done anyway.

"Good." Une said. "Noin and Milliardo will arrive in less than 24 hours with Audrey's parents. You two are no longer needed there. I want you to find that girl." They both nodded. "Now I have a press conference to attend. I expect to hear from you soon." With that the screen went blank.

Duo shoved his hands into his pockets, not bothering to take his eyes off of the blank screen. "Ok, so…how are we supposed to find this girl?"

"Hmm…" Trowa cocked his head as he thought. "Good question. She always came to me. We're gundam pilots though." He continued with a sarcastic smile. "We always pull through, right?"

"That's the blindly naïve attitude I was looking for!" Duo spun toward him with a grin. "Well, what's she look like?"

Trowa's smile vanished as he thought back to that night. "Dark hair?" He hazarded, as if unsure that his memory was serving him correctly.

Duo's grin vanished as well. With a semi-frustrated sigh, Duo turned and started heading out of the ship's cockpit and toward his room. "Oh hell, this is going to take forever. Hey, Trowa!" He yelled over his shoulder. "Go grab some of Heero's stuff so we can get out of here, will ya?"

"Oh. Yeah, sure." With one last glance toward the screen, Trowa followed Duo out of the ship's cockpit.

* * *

Heero's gaze remained locked on the small hospital room's window. The sheer curtains afforded enough of a view of the outside world to let him know that it was a bright, sunny day on the colony. His fingers were motionless on the keys of his laptop. The small, high-tech gadget was running searches in the colony's government databases, and he had nothing more to do than wait for them to finish.

He darted a quick glance toward the hallway as the sound of footsteps neared. His hand strayed to the escape button, ready to close his search if someone came in. It was a false alarm, however. The footsteps elongated again as whoever it was continued down the hall toward their destination.

After the slight tension had passed, Heero allowed himself to relax again, sinking down into his chair, and darting a glance to the sleeping woman in the bed. The two days of rest and care had done her a world of good. She was still pale and fragile, but no longer in that ghastly way that worried him so.

He also had to admit that he looked better too. The meals that he had been ordering up from the cafeteria had done wonders to change him from the perpetually pale and peaky person he'd become since Audrey's "death." Also, the bag of clean clothes and razor that Duo and Trowa had brought him the day before had not gone amiss. He only wished that the two had been a little less cryptic as to how they were planning to find that mystery woman. Heero was doing what he could to help, but there was only so much that could be accomplished from inside a hospital room.

Heero smiled a bit and reached out a hand, gently touching Audrey's hair. He'd been doing that frequently. It was the only way to assure himself that it was all real.

His eyes drifted toward the clock on the wall, and he held back a sigh. It was only a matter of time before Audrey's parents arrived. Heero frowned as his thoughts drifted back to the stern, stocky man that Audrey called her father.

Gregory Harper and Heero Yuy had never been on the best of terms. It seemed as though every time old Mr. Harper began warming up to his son in law, something happened to tear their feeble relationship asunder.

Gregory had never approved much of Heero or of his choice of career—both past and present. He had disliked Heero's "punkish" appearance, his shaggy hair, his preference for denim, and his distaste for pomp and ceremony. He had distrusted the boy who had taken his teenage daughter into the great unknown and had a habit for bringing her back bruised and longing to leave again. It hadn't been lost on Heero that Gregory had tried to subtly convince Audrey that if it was a Gundam pilot she was after, the heir to the Winner Foundation would make much more suitable match.

Because who would want an introverted, scruffy orphan when she could have the rich, cheerful son of one of the Earth Sphere's former great pacifists? Who would settle for a simple home, an average pay grade, and a job as a secretary—for that was essentially what she was—when she could have been the Mistress of a manor, live in the lap of luxury, and never have to work a day either in her house or out of it?

_Apparently Audrey would._ Heero thought with a smile. Not that she'd ever really entertained any thoughts of being with Quatre. Or anyone else for that matter.

There was something to be said for not being rich and famous. Audrey had lived that life at one point. She'd been the adopted daughter of a rich pacifist, intended to marry into the upper echelons of society, throw dinner parties, and be pampered. She would have never wanted for anything.

Anything except for freedom.

Her every action had been scrutinized, stifled, forced. She'd had to dress a certain way, behave a certain way, even think a certain way, and only to ensure that hers and her family's reputation would not be tarnished.

She'd broken free of that lifestyle, and no matter how her parents tried to persuade her to return to it, she stubbornly refused. She would live in her country home with its creaky doors, its gravel road, and drafty fireplaces. She would work eight or more hours a day, come home tired, and cook dinner for the both of them. Some days they would take their neighbors'—and elderly couple that the two called Ma and Pa—horses down to the stream that ran through the fields behind their house. When their acquaintances were in town, they often went out for drinks together. And then some nights, they would just curl up in front of the fireplace or with an old movie for the rest of the evening and not have a care in the world.

The quiet, stuffiness that pervaded the world of the rich and entitled held no sway for her. Heero was glad of that, because he hated it. He couldn't stand the ballrooms filled with people whose sole purpose in life was to talk of themselves and their money and to judge everyone else. He saw no need for six or more utensils, preferred all of his food in one plate at one time, and flat out refused to wear anything more formal than jeans to do something as simple as eat.

Both he and Audrey much preferred a night on the town—a country dance, a club, even a quiet pub somewhere. They often ventured out to the museums in Sanction, the aquarium, the zoo. Special days, anniversaries, Audrey's birthday, and Christmas were often marked by trips to the theater or ballet. Heero still couldn't quite follow a ballet without help, but he'd been getting better at it.

It was these sorts of clashes that made Heero's and his father in law's relationship rocky at best. While Gregory was perfectly content to show his son-in-law off to his friends at the country club's shooting range, he was much less willing to take him to any social events. And Heero was equally reluctant to attend them.

It was due to their rocky relationship that Heero had actually been surprised when Gregory called him. He had been even more surprised that the man had his cell phone number. Sure, Gregory's greeting had clearly portrayed his animosity and displeasure. The man's gruff attitude toward Heero had degenerated into open hostility since the presumed death of his daughter—a death which Heero had agreed to shoulder some blame for. Gregory Harper had indeed told him numerous times that a pseudo-military base was no place for a young woman with hardly any training. And Heero hadn't listened.

It was hard to see things from the eyes of a civilian sometimes.

The call had arrived two days ago—only several hours after Heero had first discovered Audrey in the hospital, and long before reality had begun to sink in. Gregory had spent ten minutes yelling at him for random things, ten minutes threatening anyone who dared play prank phone calls on him, and then another ten minutes explaining a phone call that he'd gotten from Une earlier in the day telling him that his daughter had been found alive.

Despite their differences, there was one thing that Heero and Gregory could agree upon. That thing was Audrey. She was their middle ground, their shining princess, the calming presence that immediately halted any and all of the hissed arguments that Heero and Gregory may have been having at any given point in time.

And so when Gregory had called him, demanding an explanation for the message he'd received earlier, Heero had happily confirmed that it was true.

He'd immediately gotten another earful—first to warn him against joking about something so potentially devastating. Then—when Heero assured him that it was not joke—for not contacting him immediately with such important information.

From the quiet hallway outside Audrey's room, Heero had been able to hear the sound of rummaging, of slamming doors, of shouts of joy and tears. Gregory's voice had seemed more than a little shaky, but Heero had the decency not to point it out. His own reaction to the news had been less than composed after all.

Heero had given him the name of the colony, the name of the hospital and the room number where Audrey was located before gratefully hanging up.

At the time, he knew he would have to cherish the two days he had alone with his wife before her parents came and monopolized her attention—and then inevitably tried to convince her to divorce him and move back in with them. Alas, those two day were nearly over.

His computer beeped, signaling the completion of his search. Heero turned his eyes quickly toward the screen, but a small noise beside him drew his attention away again.

Audrey was stirring. He had spent the most of the past few days in an exhausted slumber, only waking for brief intervals, and rarely seeming coherent enough to speak. Each time she awoke however, it was for a little longer, and she seemed a little more lucid.

With a small noise, Audrey's eyelids fluttered open. A confused look seemed to cross her face for a moment, before her expression suddenly cleared and she began looking around in panic. It was what she had done every time she woke up, and it was clear to Heero that Audrey was not entirely convinced that she was in fact out of her prison.

Heero quickly snapped his laptop shut and put it aside, rising from his chair in one fluid motion. "Shh." He rested a gentle hand on her cheek, drawing her gaze toward him.

Her eyes locked onto his face. He could tell that her vision was probably still blurry, but from the way the tension drained from her shoulders, he knew that she did recognize him. "Hey." He said with a smile. He brushed a lock of hair off her face.

She gazed at him as if in awe at the fact that he was there. They simply stared at each other for a moment, assuring both themselves and each other that this was, in-fact real. Heero knew that he should say something. He wasn't sure what to say though. There were so many things he wanted to tell her, but at the moment he was drawing a blank. In any case, he had never been a particularly tactful speaker, and he had the sudden worry that he might upset her.

Finally, Heero settled on the only thing that he figured was safe territory. "Good morning, sleepyhead." He said, adopting the phrase that she always used when he slept in after returning from those rare off-base missions. "You feeling better?"

She blinked at him, but instead of smiling, her face settled into a serious expression. Her eyes darted around the room once more before they settled on him again, now shiny with moisture. He saw her mouth work for a moment, but then her lip began to tremble.

"Shh." He didn't quite understand what was wrong, but he could make a guess. Oh how he hated to see her cry. "It's okay."

She shook her head weakly, and her breath hitched with a sob. "No…" Her voice was hoarse and choked when it finally came, and tears were welling in her eyes. But she was apparently determined to speak.

Heero glanced at the heart monitor, hoping that the slightly elevated heart rate wouldn't result in a flood of nurses and doctors again. "Please don't cry." He pleaded. "Calm down."

"I…" She sobbed again. "I…I t-told…them…" She trailed off into miserable sobs. He leaned down and planted a kiss on her forehead, wishing that she weren't so injured so that he could grab her in a hug.

He didn't quite understand what she was trying to tell him, but it was clear to see that, whatever it was, she was devastated by it.

Her bony hands weakly clenched onto the blankets at her sides as she tried to work out her confession. He rubbed his thumb along the part of her cheek that wasn't bruised. His hand looked so big and dark against her pale skin. It made him nervous to touch her, but he couldn't help but let the contact linger.

"I told them everything." She finally managed.

He blinked down at her, silently vowing to hunt down whoever had done this to her. With a reassuring smile, he shook his head and kissed her forehead. "Don't worry about that." He told her. "They had access to all our information from the start." He was stretching the truth, but she needed to hear that. "You didn't put anyone in danger."

Her watery eyes tried to fix on his. The knowledge that no one had been hurt because of the information she'd given them seemed to ease her soul a bit, but there was still something else that was bothering her. From the way that she suddenly flushed and averted her eyes, he thought he might know what it was.

She was suddenly overcome with sobs again.

He attempted to calm her, whispering comforts and stroking her hair, but she kept trying to talk. "I…they…" The heart monitor was rising again, but she wasn't in danger yet. "I was raped, Heero." She finally said it, and then fell into miserable sobs again at the confession.

Heero just nodded, swallowing thickly, and cupped her cheek in his hand again. The fire in his stomach had reignited at the reminder and at the sight of how much pain it caused her. He dropped his head slightly, allowing his messy bangs to fall over his suddenly-darkened eyes for a moment. One look at her, however, quelled his anger. She needed him now. "I know." He said sitting on the edge of the bed and kissing her again. "Shh. It's okay now. I won't let anyone hurt you again."

His action seemed to calm her a bit, but she continued sobbing for several minutes after that. Whether she'd been afraid that he would be upset with her about it he couldn't say for sure. He could feel her shame, but there was no way that he could fault her for it. He continued to soothe her as she slowly stopped crying.

"I missed you so much." He said honestly, once she was relatively calm.

Her watery eyes fixed on him and the first ghost of a smile that he'd seen since they'd found her lit her face. "I missed you too." She shifted, but then tensed with a grimace.

"Don't try to move." He told her. "You're more injured than you probably realize."

Her face grew frightened, and the remnants of a tear slipped from the corner of her eye. "How bad?" She asked, trying to crane her neck to look down.

"You have multiple concussions. Your rib cage is almost completely shot. You had to get surgery on your hip because a muscle was torn there. You had internal bleeding in various places. And a few bad infections. You'll be in the hospital for at least a few weeks, and then on bed rest for quite a while after that."

She blinked and dropped her eyes away from his. He noticed that her hand was weakly fidgeting with the blanket. He reached down for it, noticing with some small amazement that his hand practically swallowed hers. Had it always been that small?

"So… I can…go home…in a few weeks?" Her quiet question drew his attention back to her.

"We'll see. Descending through the Earth's atmosphere might be a bit too much for you."

She blinked again, staring at him, and he could see in her eyes that she was confused at something. Finally, she voiced her question. "Atmosphere?"

With a small smile, he nodded.

"Where…?" She turned her head to gaze to the window, squinting as if that might help her to see through the sheer drapes.

He rose and crossed the room to the window, pulling the curtain open. "We're in the colonies. Colony BC4009 to be exact. It doesn't look much different than Earth, really," Heero said, leaving the window and coming back toward her. "But if you look close enough, you can see the bolts on the 'sky' up there."

Her small "oh" was hardly more than a whisper.

Heero sat on the side of the bed again, taking in her pale face, and bleary eyes. "You should get some sleep." Heero said. "Your parents will be here in a few hours, and I don't feel like hearing them whine any more than they're already going to about how I'm not letting you get your rest."

A small, tired smile lit her face. "Will—"

He anticipated her question and answered before she could finish. "I'll stay here. Now go to sleep."

It hardly took more than that. She was clearly still exhausted, and although she initially fought it, she was asleep again in minutes. Heero sat back down and flipped open his computer. His eyes immediately began skimming over all of the information he'd found. There did not appear to be anything pertinent or useful.

There wasn't much else to do, however, so he simply stretched and began reading in more detail.

Four hours later, he had made absolutely no progress. Clearly the government was not in on whatever was happening on this colony. That or they were very good at hiding it. Heero ran a hand through his hair and was about to open a new folder when he thought he heard a familiar voice.

A moment later, he knew for certain that he was not imagining things. He quickly shut his laptop and shoved it into the duffel bag under his bed. Then he turned on the tv in the room, making sure that the subtitles were on. He had just gotten into the position of someone who had been lazing about watching tv for quite a few hours when the door opened.

Framed in the doorway were the familiar figures of Gregory and Lillian Harper.

* * *

A/N: Yay, I updated again. I hope you enjoyed that. Thank you soooo much to those of you who reviewed the last chapter. Thank you for all of your support and suggestions. I always appreciate your opinions, so let me know what you thought. The next chapter will have more action, I promise! Also, if you have any advice or suggestions, let me know!


	9. Target

Chapter 9- Target

Gregory and Lillian Harper stood stock still in the doorway of the hospital room. The waning light coming through the widow lit their faces revealing much more peaky features than what Heero remembered. They'd clearly not been eating well since their daughter's "death." The husky, red-faced man's eyes found Heero and lingered on him for a moment. It was Lillian who saw Audrey first.

The woman emitted a small gasp, and as if in slow motion, her knees gave out beneath her. It was instinct that moved Heero across the room to catch her just as Gregory turned to grab her.

As the two men helped her to the chair beside the bed, Lillian's began murmuring. "My little girl. Oh good God, she's alive!" She clearly didn't know whether she should cry for joy or be horrified by the state she had found her daughter in.

Gregory seemed equally conflicted, as he reluctantly let go of his wife to extend a hand toward his daughter. His hand hovered in the air, just a few inches above Audrey's head, before he drew it back.

"Son," Heero actually jumped at the unusual appellation, but made no other sign that he had heard it. Gregory paid his son-in-law's silence no heed. He knew full well that Heero had heard him. "How is she?"

Heero took a breath. "Nearly all of her ribs are cracked at least once. She had some internal bleeding and concussions." He said softly, and from the corner of his eye, he could see his mother-in-law's face go a ghostly white. "Those are the worst of her injuries if you don't count being severely malnourished and dehydrated. The physical trauma will heal slowly, but over time she should regain near-to-full use of her body." He paused for a second and took a deep breath. He dreaded having to voice what he was about to say. It made it seem so much more serious. "The trauma and abuse that she experienced though will take a toll on her psyche. Some people who are victims of such things recover. Some never do. Only time will tell for her.

"There is one thing that probably does not need to be said, but I'll say it anyway. As much as possible, try to remain calm around her. No sudden movements, no raised voices. And please don't cry. It upsets her even more."

Lillian took a deep breath, and nodding, made a valiant effort to erase the evidence of her tears.

"You don't have to worry much about that." Heero told her, moving away to lean against the wall. "Her vision is blurry due to the medicine."

"Would you leave us alone with her?" Gregory asked quietly.

Heero stiffened, and a flash of anger and protectiveness shot through his mind. He tried to squash it down with reason. Why wouldn't her parents want some time alone with her? He had, after all, had her for two whole days to himself. Still, the reflex was hard to fight. He didn't particularly like Audrey's parents, and although he was certain that they would do nothing to harm her, he was reluctant to leave her alone, even for a few minutes—it was doing that that had gotten her kidnapped in the first place. And Heero Yuy never made the same mistake twice.

Gregory instantly spotted the look of indecision on Heero's face, for his own expression darkened, and he took a step toward his son-in-law. "Well? Are you going to leave?"

"Gregory." Lillian's voice was tired and shaky. A hint of frustration and helplessness was also laced into the simple word. However, her husband paid her no heed.

Heero could see the bags under Gregory Harper's eyes as he approached. He could see the new wrinkles, the new gray hairs, and the proof that he had been too preoccupied to shave regularly. Gregory's suit was ruffled. His tie was pulled loose, and the top few buttons of his shirt were undone. Gregory's dark eyes bore into Heero's own. He could see the stress that had been weighing on the man for the past few weeks, crushing him and leaving him exhausted and volatile. Gregory was hot-blooded and easily set-off at the best of times. And these were certainly not the best of times. Heero was therefore not surprised at the sudden reversal, the sudden flash of anger.

Whereas Heero may once have flinched, now he did not budge as the man neared him. "Perhaps your background and history did not provide a course in manners and politesse, but let me teach you now." Gregory's meaty finger waved in Heero's face. "As family, Lillian and I deserve some time alone with our daughter. As of the moment she went missing, you ceased to qualify as family—both to us, and to her. You have seduced my little girl into following you into such a dangerous profession and left her in the mercy of some psychopath, but this stops now."

"What?" He wasn't entirely sure what the statement meant but he could certainly guess. And it didn't sound like anything good.

"Gregory, please." Lillian said. She did not stand, nor did she really move. Her gaze remained locked onto Audrey, as she rubbed gentle circles on her hand.  
Neither he nor Heero listened. Heero's gaze darkened at that last remark. He grabbed a handful of Gregory's shirt and leaned closer to him. The air in the room seemed to condense. "We've already had this conversation." Heero hissed at the older man. He had to give Gregory credit. Not many men met his wrath and could be wholly unfazed. "I agreed that it was due to my influence that Audrey became a Preventer. I agreed to shoulder the blame for her being on the base that day and alone. But you will _not _insinuate that I had something to do with _that." _He waved a jerky hand toward the bed as an indication.

"And why—"

"Stop it!" Lillian's words were a cross between a whisper and a screech. "Gregory let it go. We both know that Heero had nothing to do with what's happened. If you think that he did, than you have seriously misjudged him." She fixed her husband with an exhausted glare. "And Heero, if you really distrust us that much, then by all means, you're welcome to stay and supervise us."

"It's not that—" He hurried to correct her, but when she turned her glare on him, he fell silent.

Her eyes were narrowed and angry, making her look far more dangerous than he'd ever seen her. Heero had heard stories about mothers doing amazing, heroic, and even viscous things in defense of their children. He suddenly wondered if he was in danger of witnessing something of the sort if he didn't keep his mouth shut. A quick glance at Gregory showed a similar expression of chastised worry to his own.

Lillian made a visible effort to calm herself. "But if you're going to continue to behave this way, then you should both leave."

Heero and Gregory both continued to stare at her wide-eyed, but a moment later, they took a step away from each other. Gregory sent one more glance to Heero before brushing past him to stand beside the bed.

Heero remained standing to the side of the room. It was as if he'd suddenly ceased to exist as the mother and father gazed upon their battered daughter. They began whispering to each other, apparently intent on not waking Audrey up.

Heero stared at the scene for a moment, realizing not for the first time that he didn't fit. He frowned slightly but decided that they did deserve a little time alone with her. Patting his pocket to make sure his wallet was there, he turned and headed to the door.

He opened it a crack, glancing back over his shoulder at the three. He had apparently ceased to exist to them. Assuring himself that he recognized the two guards now stationed outside the door he ventured into the hallway. He was just about to turn to head to the vending machines when two familiar figures appeared from the other end of the hall.

He paused and blinked at them only vaguely remembering hearing that they would be coming. With a broad grin, Noin greeted him.

"You look much better." She said before glancing to the door. "It's amazing isn't it? To have her back?"

He just nodded and looked between the two of them curiously. Dressed in their brown Preventer's jackets, they were clearly ready for business. "What are you two doing here?"

"We came to visit before we have to head out to investigate that old facility Trowa found." Noin explained. "How is she doing?"

"Better." He said before clarifying. "She's still pretty bad off, but she's much better than she was."

"I take it her parents are with her now?" Noin hazarded.

He nodded again with a frown.

"We'll give them a little time alone with her." She said understandingly, sending a glance toward the doorway and the two guards stationed there. "What do you say to a coffee?"

He just shrugged.

She smiled and nodded her head down the hall. "Come on then. We'll treat you to dinner as well."

* * *

"Yeah, I got nothing." Duo leaned back in the swivel chair, stretching the arm that wasn't holding the phone high above his head.

"Are you sure?" Trowa's voice was disbelieving. "Not a single person on either night?"

"Nope." Duo kicked his feet up on his hotel room's table.

Trowa sighed loudly. Hours of scanning nearby store and street surveillance videos and there was still no trace of the girl and no indication of where she'd come from.

"Odds are, she's still on the colony though." Duo said. "I mean only a thousand or so people leave every day…though now that I think of it, that's not a very small number."

Trowa was silent for a moment.

"So how _did_ you get her to come to you those other times?" Duo finally asked. Trowa clearly had no idea how to find that woman, and his only statement on the matter was that she had always come to him…though apparently he had somehow facilitated that.

"I made it rain." He said simply.

Duo's eyes popped open for a minute and he stared in surprise at the phone in his hand. Finally slowly, he brought the phone back to his ear. "A…at…like a club?" He scratched his head. "Well I guess that makes sense."

"Huh?" Trowa's confusion was enough to let Duo know that he'd meant the phrase in a more literal sense.

"Nevermind." He said. "I'm assuming that you mean that you made it precipitate."

"Yes…rain."

Duo chuckled slightly. "Can you do it again?"

"Yes, but I don't see it working."

"It doesn't hurt to try."

He could practically hear his friend's pensive frown. "I suppose not."

Duo hung up and set his phone aside with a chuckle. "I gotta teach these old boys how to talk."

To his surprise, only a moment later, his phone rang again. "Hm?" He glanced at the caller ID before answering. "Yo!"

"Duo." Noin's voice was cheerful.

"I take it you've seen Audrey." Duo guessed.

The smile was evident in her words. "She's doing much better than I thought. She's really hanging in there."

"Was she awake then?"

"No, but according to Heero, she has woken up a few times since she was brought in, and she's mostly lucid."

"That's good." He said, shifting lightly in his chair. "I assume you didn't just call to tell me that though."

"No. I wanted to know if you've got anything on the informant."

"No not yet. Trowa's going to try to lure her in again tonight. If that doesn't work, we're pretty stumped."

"Hmm." Noin's voice was slightly disappointed. "Well Zechs and I are at the old weapons research facility."

He dropped his feet off the table and sat up straight. "You guys be careful."

"I don't think we'll run into any problems." Noin said. "There are other Preventers here, so I don't think there's any danger."

"Right."

"Anyway, I've got to go."

"Good luck." Duo said, and a moment later the call ended.

* * *

Noin checked the time on her phone before slipping it back into her pocket. It was nearly 8pm. With any luck, they would be through in an hour and she could start sleeping off her jetlag.

She stepped out of their rented car, and walked over to Milliardo. He was talking with the Preventer officer who was currently in charge of the group investigating the building. The dark alley they were standing in was lit by bright lanterns casting away the nighttime shadows.

"And other than the room Audrey was locked in?" Milliardo was asking as she approached the pair.

"Nothing." The Preventer officer shook his head. "There is evidence that there were weapons here—many of them…large ones. But the weapons themselves have been moved. All we can do now is search for fingerprints."

"Have you found any?"

"A few." The man said. "Most of the obvious places were clearly wiped down when whoever was staying here left. Also…Barton, was it?...said there were candy wrappers and other things of the sort in the room adjacent to the one the girl was held prisoner in. We've found nothing."

"Someone's been back here." Noin concluded, glancing at Milliardo. He nodded.

"I don't know what good we'll do here." Noin added. "But I guess it wouldn't hurt for us to look around."

The officer nodded, and with a few short words, left them to speak to another officer who'd just emerged form the complex.

Noin drew her gun, just in case. She saw Milliardo do the same. There were at least a dozen Preventers in the facility, but one could never be too careful. "Ready?" She asked.

"Always." Was the only answer she got, before he pushed the door open. This was likely the same door Trowa had used. According to the maps they'd gotten from the colony's government files this route would take them to the large manufacturing rooms the quickest. It was also apparently the quickest route to the room where Audrey had been held.

They had only taken a few steps inside when Noin suddenly got a bout of chills. She halted mid-step, shivering.

A short way down the hall, she could see a Preventer officer crouched down examining a door handle. The hallway was dim—the fluorescent lighting somehow not seeming to lend any brightness to the area. Or perhaps it just felt dark.

Milliardo stopped and turned back to her. "Are you alright?" He asked, a hint of worry tainting his voice. Something about the sound of his voice seemed far off, as if he had been talking through a wall of water.

"I…" She hesitated, trying to describe the sudden feeling of dread and horror she'd gotten when stepping into the building. Perhaps it was just the knowledge that her friend had been held prisoner here for weeks. For weeks, held tortured and abused. The mere idea of it amplified her feeling of horror and dread.

But there was something else, something more ominous. Not a deed already past, but one that was promised to come.

"If it bothers you being in here, you should wait outside." Milliardo told her.

She blinked at him.

He smirked a bit at her. "You're a bit of a softie after all."

She didn't smile back. Something was still bothering her. The same way it had a few weeks ago when…

Then it hit her, and she was speaking even before the idea had clearly formed in her head. "Zechs, why would—" The sudden sound of an explosion cut her off. The building shook, and Milliardo reached out to grab her before she fell.

The door at the end of the hall flew open, hitting the wall with a violent bang. Preventers in their brown uniform jackets were suddenly running through the hall for the exit, and without really thinking about it, Noin ran with them.

Another explosion rocked the foundations of the building causing her to stumble. This one had been much closer than the first. Milliardo's hand on her arm again steadied her, and before she knew it, they were outside the building once more.  
She followed the other Preventers across the street to where a loud, frightened crowd was already gathering to watch the explosion.

Two more stragglers emerged from the now burning building. One was limping, leaning heavily on the other. She could see the bright red streak of blood running down the side of his face. Several Preventers rushed forward to help their comrades away from the building.

A dark plume of smoke now marred the otherwise starry artificial sky, and yet more explosions were sounding. Bright orange flames licked the sky lighting up the darkened streets clear as day. With a loud rumble, the research facility suddenly seemed to buckle.

The crowd of citizens and Preventers gasped and surged backwards. She felt Milliardo jerking her backwards as well, as the building finally collapsed in a cloud of ash and smoke. Glass and debris rained down from the sky, but other than being covered by a layer of ash, they were far enough away to not be hit.

When the explosions finally stopped, she glanced up to Milliardo.

In the distance, she could hear ambulances and police fast approaching.

Milliardo was looking to the sky however.

"What?" She asked. "What is it?"

"It seems like too much of a coincidence that those bombs went off right after we walked inside doesn't it?"

"You think we were specifically targeted?" Noin asked skeptically.

He shrugged. "It's a possibility. Remote detonated explosives aren't uncommon." He reminded her before motioning to the buildings behind them. "And these buildings have a good enough view of the door to the facility for someone to have known exactly who went in and out."

"How would they have even known we were coming?"

He looked down at her, sharp blue eyes staring through platinum blond bangs. "I have no idea."

* * *

He saw the explosion before he heard it, and even then, it was only a dull rumble, easily confused with something else.

With as little pretense as possible, he stood, looking toward the window. Audrey and Lillian didn't seem to have noticed the sound of the explosion, and from how far they were from the window, it would have been difficult for either of them to see the towering flames that were currently devouring some old warehouse across town. They were sitting peacefully. Lillian was talking of everything she could think of—the maids' new boyfriends, the spring weather, plans for Christmas, desserts. Audrey for her part was listening with a tired yet wistful smile.

Heero hooked a finger behind the sheer curtain and pulled it aside just enough to have a clear view of the city below. He felt Gregory come to stand beside him. The two had hardly spoken after their earlier encounter, but as soon as Lydia had woken up, they had reached a silent truce.

"What is it?" Gregory hissed in a whisper. "Are we being attacked?"

Heero glanced over at him. "I doubt it." He answered. "I'm going to go make a call." With that, he spun away from the window and strode out of the room. Much to his dismay, Gregory followed him into the hall.

He tried to ignore him as he punched in the numbers.

The call was answered almost immediately. "Zechs?"

"Yeah?"

"What's going on?"

"You mean the explosion?"

"Obviously."

"We're both fine; thanks for asking. Two Preventers are missing. They're trying to put the flames out enough to get firefighters in. It might…" He paused for a moment. "The explosions went off only a few minutes after Noin and I went into the building. Since Preventers had been investigating for hours already, we think that the two of us may have been specifically targeted."

"You're saying that they…well whoever they are…have enough access to our files to know that you were coming?"

"It's just an idea." He said. Suddenly there was a rustling, and Noin's voice was on the line.

"I think it would be best if you take Audrey to another colony." She said without delay.

He frowned and sent a glance to Gregory. "I don't think she's stable enough to move."

"You need to check on that anyway. This colony is looking like a hot bed of terrorists—or whatever they are. It's not safe for any of you as long as you're here."

He glanced at Gregory who was staring at him with a worried expression. The two guards near the door were also watching them in concern.

"Alright." He sighed, suddenly feeling stress crash down on him again. "I'll check on it." Without another word, he cut the call. Running a hand through his hair, he turned to his expectant father in law and began the rueful task of relating the news.

* * *

The night was silent. The only sound was the soft patter of rain on his roof and window. Even the animals seemed to be making less noise than usual. The news of the explosion at the research factory had spread like wildfire, igniting a flame of dread in his stomach. He was nervous.

Sure he had spent most of his life in space, but during his brief periods on Earth, he had grown to like the sound of crickets chirping in the night.

It was strange. He had sensed the danger approaching. He'd smelled it on the wind, and felt it in the air. And yet it had utterly surprised him when the time came to act.

He had saved one life. But at the cost of how many?

How could he have known that the girl would disappear the moment he turned his back. Well…sure she had been begging him to stop the truck, to let her down so that she could disappear back into the dark again.

He turned his head to look at the clock. It was almost 4am. He had been lying in his bed for over 4 hours already, but he had no intention of going to sleep.

He was waiting. He'd set the rain to continue until 6am. It had already been raining for several hours and the girl still hadn't appeared. It made him wonder if it was just a coincidence that she had always come on rainy nights.

His eyes drifted to the mat near the door, half expecting a note to appear there at any moment. He'd been looking every few minutes for the past four hours, but nothing had appeared.

He was just starting to lose faith in his idea when he heard it—the sound of something sliding briefly over loose gravel. Something—or someone with any luck—was moving about the site.

Trowa shot out of his bed. Without bothering with a jacket, he threw on his shoes, and silently slipped out of the door. The rain beat down on him as he moved quietly through the camp.

He spotted her almost instantly, ducking behind a tarpaulin-covered crate. Like before, her hood was pulled up, and he could nearly smell the fear and nervousness radiating off her.

She slowly made her way closer, and he ducked behind a trailer to await her arrival. He could hear her shoes squishing in the mud and puddles as she neared him. She paused every few steps, perhaps listening for movement, perhaps debating turning around. But every time, she continued forward, until she had reached the trailer.

Just as she rounded the corner, he grabbed her arm and covered her mouth quickly, muffling her scream.

"I'd hoped you'd come back." He said quietly in her ear.

Her scream cut off at the sound of his voice, although she remained tense and shaking.

"Now don't scream." He said, and when he was sure she would obey, he let her go.

She spun around stumbling back a step. She ripped down her hood, revealing a bruised cheek, and a face streaked with tears. "You have to help me!" She hissed urgently.

His eyebrows raised, and his eyes lingered on the rather large purple mark that covered the left side of her face, but he didn't say anything.

"They know that she's gone, and they know that someone from the inside let you in. They're searching for you already. They're hunting the Preventers down. It won't be long before…before…" She shook her head, sending droplets of water and tears flying. "They'll kill us all!"

He stared at her silently for a moment, briefly wondering if perhaps she was merely trying to get close to him to turn on him. Somehow he doubted it. Decided, he grabbed her wrist and tugged her along toward his trailer. "Come on." He said calmly. "Let's get inside."

* * *

A/N: Okay, so I may have been a bit too ambitious before when I said I would update within reasonable time frames. I'm sorry for the terribly long wait, and I really appreciate all of you who stuck with me and kept supporting me. This story is not abandoned—nor will it ever be! I'd honestly meant to update much sooner, but I ended up getting accepted into a Masters Program (in yet another country) and couldn't seem to muster up enough creative juice to create decent chapters for two stories at once.

There is hope though. The DBZ story that I was working on alongside this is nearly finished, so I'll be able to dedicate all of my energy to this one. Also, I am studying and writing my thesis on topics somewhat tangential to some of the issues that appear in this story, so I'll hopefully be inspired to write more.

Again, thank you to those of you who kept up with this story and who sent me encouraging messages and reviews! I really appreciate your support!


	10. Midnight Melody

Chapter 10—Midnight Melody

"Okay," He set the kettle onto the flame as quietly as possible, and then glanced back at the young woman sitting at his table. The small light above the stove was providing what feeble luminescence it could, leaving most of the small room still cloaked in shadow. It was enough to see the dark bruise on the young woman's cheek though. "What exactly do they know?"

She dropped her eyes to her lap. "They have your face on their security cameras. They know who you are. I…I didn't mean to…I mean I wasn't…I'd forgotten about the cameras. I thought you knew." She sent him a nervous glance, to which he just shrugged nonchalantly.

"They knew my face anyway, I'd imagine." He informed her.

She stared at him worriedly, as if wondering how he had not yet grasped the depth of the situation. "They'll be coming after you."

"That's okay." He turned and pulled down two teacups from the cabinet. He spent a few silent moments searching for teabags before finding them hiding behind Catherine's diet energy bars. Fiddling with the bags, he finally said. "We'll all be long gone before they figure out where I am. Now, why did you say you needed help?"

From the corner of his eye, Trowa saw her gaze dart nervously toward the door. "They know an insider helped you in." She said. "They're searching for the rat. I'm safe for the moment, but it's only a matter of time." She paused, and he could see her body shake with a violent shiver. "They'll kill me." She whispered, dropping her eyes to her lap and continuing to shiver.

He stared at her for a moment, before retrieving the teakettle from the stovetop and turning off the flame. Calmly, he prepared the tea and then moved to sit at the table, placing both cups on the table.

Trowa didn't really need to study this woman. The first time he had seen her, he had pretty much judged her. There was something still mysterious about her, but he already knew that she was a kind person. He couldn't quite explain how he knew. He often annoyed his friends by seeing what others couldn't, but for him, some things were just obvious. He could tell that this girl was telling the truth. She was in danger, and she needed his help.

And Trowa knew without a doubt that he had to help her. He could not explain why. He just knew that it was his duty somehow.

He leaned back in his chair and took a sip of his tea. It was still not quite as strong as he liked it, but it would do.

"Are you willing to sever all ties with…this organization?" He asked.

She looked up at him, and he was somewhat surprised to see tears on her face. "You'll help me?" She asked.

With two fingers, he pushed the tea closer to her. "It's not poisoned, I promise." He said. "And yes, I'll help you. But only if you can swear to never try to contact them again. There are many lives at risk here."

She hardly had to think but immediately began nodding. "I'll do whatever you ask."

"Good." He said. "I will likely have to bring some other people into this, just so you know. The Preventers would love to talk to you, I'm sure." She had finally picked up her cup, but then paused with it halfway to her mouth. He just waved a hand. "But don't worry about that. They're all alright. For the moment, it would probably be best if we got you some clothes. We should be safe here tonight I think." He pushed his chair back and stood. "Just stay here."

Quietly, he walked down the trailer's short hall to a door, and knocked. "Catherine?" When no one answered, he glanced back to the girl and shrugged before knocking again.

After a few minutes, Catherine, wrapped in a pink robe, opened the door a crack. "Trowa?" She said, clearly growing worried at the fact that he had woken her up so late. She looked him over. He was still in his day clothes. "Is something the matter?" She asked opening the door wider.

"Uhh…no." He said, waving away her concern. "No, not really. I just need to borrow some clothes?"

She cocked her head to the side and rubbed a hand over her eye. "Clothes?"

He nodded.

"Trowa, what on earth…? My clothes wouldn't even fit you."

"Oh no they're not…" He paused, and then suddenly seemed to realize something. Telling his rather overprotective sister that there was a strange woman spending the night in his room was probably not the best of ideas. Forget that he was actually an adult. "That is…uh…"

She came out a step and looked into his eyes. "Trowa are you ok? You didn't go to that hookah place did you? I told you that that stuff is more potent than they advertise—"

"Catherine." In the pale light, she could see that his face grew pink, and he backed up a step. "I just…need some girl clothes…and stuff…"

Catherine narrowed her eyes. "Did David put you up to this? Or was it Asif?"

"Neither. I just need…uhh…" He sighed. He would just have to tell her. "Fine." He stepped aside so that she could see the young woman sitting quietly at the table. "She's in danger, and I told her that she could sleep here tonight."

Catherine gasped and dropped her voice to a whisper. "You let a stranger into our trailer in the middle of the night? Trowa, that's dangerous!" Sometimes, Trowa wondered how she would treat him if he _wasn't_ a gundam pilot—or a grown man for that matter.

"No it's not." He said with just a touch of sternness in his voice. "I've met her before, so she's not really a stranger. She's helping the Preventers. Look, it's a long story, and I'll tell you all about it later, but I really just wanted the clothes."

She considered for a moment. "I want to meet her." Trowa supposed it could be worse. "Trustworthy people don't just show up in the middle of the night, and to be frank, I don't like the idea of her sharing our trailer. What if she's really here to kill you, and she's just waiting until you're asleep to do it?"

He had to work hard not to sigh. "She doesn't really seem like the type."

Catherine crossed her arms.

With a longsuffering sigh, Trowa stepped aside and allowed her to pass. He knew that they needed to leave the colony the next day. It would be dangerous to stay when they knew that whatever organization was operating was doing it from this very colony. He had a few phone calls to make before he left though.

* * *

The only light in the room was that coming through the windows. He'd drawn the curtains open as night fell, and when he managed to tear his eyes away from his computer screen, it was always to gaze at the dark trail of smoke still rising off of the abandoned warehouse. The fire had long been put out, and there had been no attack since. But the silence was ominous.

Heero didn't like it. The knowledge that he was surrounded by enemies that he couldn't locate was gnawing at him. He almost longed for the old war—the one where everyone wore uniforms and his enemies were much more forthcoming in their intentions. At this point, he had no idea who his enemies were. Their only clue was a girl—a young woman who had come in the night and disappeared back into it quicker than anyone could think to react. Duo and Trowa should be looking for the girl now, but he hadn't heard anything from them yet.

Noin had called him, just as an update. Two Preventers had been killed in the blast. The bombs themselves had not been found, but teams of Preventers were gathering security footage from the surrounding buildings until the building was deemed safe enough to investigate.

Zechs thought it likely that the blast had been remotely detonated from one of the surrounding apartment buildings, and had already set about trying to procure lists of residents and empty apartments for all of the rooms whose windows faced the warehouse. That was turning out to be an abominable task given legal restrictions and privacy protections, but he was determined to have his way. It was therefore little surprise to Heero when the phone was snatched away from Noin and Zechs' voice came on the line demanding that Heero find the information he needed.

Heero had been more than happy to oblige. Audrey's parents had disappeared to their hotel room around midnight. The TV screen was only showing muted images of the explosion and suspicions of what may have caused it. He needed something to do.

However, the more he read, the more he grew uncomfortable. The buildings were all high-security, and yet someone had managed to slip through like it was nothing.

It was becoming ever-clearer that whoever they were dealing with was very sophisticated. He sent a glance toward Audrey, now sleeping peacefully. He knew he had always been paranoid. Audrey had pointed it out to him endless times. But at times like these, it was called for. If someone managed to slip into the hospital and made it into their room, what could he do? He could gun them down, of course, but what if, in his surprise, his reaction was delayed. It's not like Audrey could just jump out of bed and dodge a bullet. Given how little he'd slept lately, he might not have much luck either.

And then of course there was the possibility of a bomb. That was looking like one of this organization's preferred MO's. Whoever these terrorists were, they wouldn't even need to get into room. A bomb planted on the floor above or below, or in either of the neighboring rooms would be enough.

The mere thought made him put aside his computer and stand. He didn't know what he planned to do. Surely someone would have said something if someone suspicious had wandered into one of the hospital rooms. Or would they?

He trailed is hand along the wall nearest Audrey's bed as if it might give him a clue. It was flat and cold and completely normal.

He sighed and stepped back, sending another suspicious glance around. Then, without another thought, he pulled out his phone.

* * *

The loud ringing of his phone made him jerk awake.

"Ack!" Duo brought a soothing hand to his neck to rub at the sharp pain that shot through it. His eyes quickly darted around the room. Small room, plain walls, bed, chair, desk, laptop, puddle of drool on the desk. "Ugh." He wiped up the wet spot with his sleeve. As he picked up his phone to check the time, it ran again.

"Oh right. That thing." He flipped it open. "Yo!"

"Duo." Heero's voice came over the line. "Where are you?"

"I'm on the ship." He answered.

"Doing what?"

Duo let out a great yawn and stretched. "Diligently looking over security footage."

"Uh huh." The skeptical note wasn't lost on him, but before Duo could say anything else, Heero continued. "I need a ship. I'm taking Audrey and her parents to Quatre's in the morning."

"Oh…And…Does Quatre know about this?"

"He'll be okay with it. He's offered to help in any way possible after all."

"Hm. Yeah, that's true. But…you don't expect to take our ship do you?" Duo blinked and looked around his bedroom. Their own ship was small—only meant for two people, it sported only two bedrooms, a cockpit with two seats, a small bathroom and a kitchenette. "It would be pretty close quarters for us all to ride in ours." He paused before adding. "I'm assuming you're telling me this because you want me to come along?"

"Yeah."

He grinned. "You're so sentimental suddenly." He could practically hear Heero roll his eyes.

"I think we should take Zechs and Noin's ship."

Duo's grin didn't fade. It only grew slightly more malicious. "Oh?"

"They brought the Harpers and a few reinforcements after all."

"That they did. But you can't expect them all to ride back in our ship."

"Well we'll take the Harpers, and the Preventers are down two anyway—"

"Heero!"

He sighed. "My apologies." He said before mumbling just loud enough for Duo to hear. "It's true though."

Duo shook his head in amusement and pushed himself out of his chair. "I take it we're keeping this under the radar." He guessed.

"These people apparently have access to our files. They knew that Noin and Zechs were coming, and they knew exactly when they'd be going to the warehouse. It's best to keep it between us for now."

Stretching grandly, he yawned again. "Okay. Makes sense, I guess. I'll just go have a look at the ship then. Call you back in a bit."

"Hn."

Duo snapped his phone shut with a grin. Heero may not show it, but Duo had a feeling he was relishing the prospect of taking Zechs' ship.

He had just reached the exit of the ship when his phone began ringing again.

"Hm?" He snatched it up and answered the call. "Jeez! I'm not even out of our ship yet!"

There was a pause. "Duo?"

"Oh…Trowa? What's up? Did you find something?"

"You could say that." He answered, and before Duo could ask what that meant, he continued. "I've got the girl."

Duo cast a look around the relatively empty hangar. Besides a few crate-carrying men in plain gray jumpsuits, there was no one around—just the many, empty personal spacecraft. He lowered his voice anyway. "Really? She came?"

"Yeah. I need to get her off the colony though. She says that she's in danger."

"From who?"

"The men responsible for the kidnapping and bombings. From what little I can understand, it's a terrorist network, and one of the cells is on this colony."

"But she's…not a member? You sure she's not being sent to spy?"

"Don't worry, I'm on that. She's not bugged, has no phone or computer, and I've taken her clothes."

"Uhh?." The noise Duo made had just enough of an odd tone to make Trowa stop and go back over what he'd said.

"—And gave her some of Catherine's." He added with some slight annoyance that he'd needed to clarify. "Anyway, if she's spying, I have no idea how she'd communicate. In either case, I doubt she's a threat to me."

"You clearly don't know women." Duo said. "But look…have you talked to Heero about this?"

"Heero? No why?"

"Because he's planning on hijacking Noin and Zechs' ship. Like, in a few hours."

"Oh." The surprise was evident in his voice. "For what purpose?"

"We're going to Quatre's. Being here has Heero kinda freaked out, and if what you say is true, he's right to want to leave." He paused for a moment. "I think it's a good idea for you to bring her with us. It would be too dangerous for you to go off on your own with her."

"Hm. I don't know…"

"Just call Heero." Duo urged. "And then call me back."

* * *

The silence in the room was split by the shrill ring of Heero's cell phone. He jumped at the sudden noise. He had only just gotten off the phone with Gregory—the phone was still in his hand, and he had been just about to punch in Quatre's number. It couldn't possibly be Gregory again. The man couldn't possibly need any more clarification. It had to be Duo.

Glancing toward Audrey's bed to see if the ring had awoken her, he answered the call. "Are we set?"

"Uhh…."

"Oh…" Heero frowned at the familiar voice. It was certainly not one he was expecting to hear. "Trowa?"

"Yeah." The voice confirmed. "I just talked to Duo. It seems that you and I have the same priority right now, and he thinks it would be best if we talked."

"Uh huh."

"You're taking Audrey off the colony tonight?"

"First thing in the morning, I hope."

"To Quatre's?"

"Yes."

"Have you talked to him?"

He sighed. "I was just about to call him." Then, after a moment's hesitation asked. "But what's that got to do with you?"

"I've got the other girl. The informant." Trowa's voice was low as if he was trying not to be overheard.

Heero's ears perked up at the news. "Really?"

"Yeah. The thing is, she is somehow connected with the organization, and she think that there is only a matter of time before they find out that she is their mole. She's agreed to talk to us as long as we get her off the colony."

Heero hardly needed to consider. His free hand clenched on the arm of his chair at the prospect of finally figuring out who was behind all this. "We'll bring her with us. I want to talk to her."

Trowa had clearly heard something in Heero's voice just then. There was a long pause before he asked. "Talk…in what sense?"

"In…the normal sense." He answered with little humor. "But, listen, we don't know just how these terrorists keep getting hold of our plans, so we're not telling anyone else. Got it?"

"Yeah."

"Good. I'm guessing Duo will call you to tell you what time we're leaving."

"I'll call him back in a minute so we're all on the same page."

Heero suddenly thought of something. "Wait. You should probably get all of your people off the colony as well."

There was a long pause. "Yeah…" Trowa's voice changed slightly then, as if Heero's words had confirmed something he had been dreading. "Yeah, I'll see to it. Thanks." And then he hung up.

* * *

Heero hadn't slept a wink that night, and it showed. Perhaps fortunately, something similar could be said of Gregory. When the door opened promptly at 6:30 that morning, it wasn't the primly-dressed father-in-law he'd grown to know over the years that entered, but a haggard one with dark bags under his eyes. Although his face was neatly-shaven, his hair combed, and his suit pressed. His pallor and exhaustion were visible.

Heero hardly moved as they entered except to send a nod in their direction. He was currently slouched down in the chair beside Audrey's bed with his arms crossed over his chest, and his legs stretched out before him.

Although in his tiredness, he was likely not as sharp as usual, it was easy to deduce that Gregory had been kept up all night with worry, and that Lillian had no idea that anything was in the works.

"Heero." Lillian said, as she walked in. "You look terrible. Did you sleep at all?"

He just shook his head.

"You really should." She admonished gently. "If you want to go to the hotel, we can rent you a room."

"That won't be necessary." Gregory said, earning a warning glare from his wife. Fixing his eyes on Heero, he hurried to clarify. "We won't be staying on this colony much longer."

While Lillian took a moment to process that statement, Heero sent a tired nod to Gregory.

The silence in the room only lingered for a moment before Lillian found her voice. "What do you mean, 'we're not staying?'" She asked. Her voice had a desperate tone to it, and strangely, she turned to Heero for support. "You can't expect to take Audrey out of the hospital."

Heero finally propped himself up in his chair. He let his eyes dart to Gregory for a moment before settling them back on Lillian. Although he knew he would be risking Gregory's ire, he decided to just be straight with her. "This colony isn't safe." He said. "The people who are responsible for kidnapping Audrey and for all of the things that happened to her are still here. There was an attack last night at the very place Audrey was being held. Two Preventers are confirmed dead, and several more were injured. It would be foolish to stay here any longer."

As he spoke, Lillian's expression grew more and more terrified. "Then why didn't we leave last night?"

"I had to find somewhere to go."

"And have you?" Gregory asked.

Heero nodded.

"And it's safe?" Lillian asked.

"The Winner family estate is the safest place in this region, I've been assured."

"And when do we leave?" Gregory asked.

Heero pulled out his phone and checked the time. "The ship is fully prepped and ready. Our car will be here in about 10 minutes. Our escort should be here any moment."

"And our bags?" Lillian asked "Gregory, if you knew—"

"We're doing a runner, my dear." Gregory answered tiredly. "No one is to know we are gone until after we've left."

Suddenly, the door opened, and a man in surgeon's scrubs walked in, wheeling a stretcher. His hair had been twisted up tightly and hidden under a scrub cap. "Morning, all!" He said cheerfully. "Ready to get this show on the road?"

"You're late." Heero said.

"Only by like 3 minutes. You try to steal scrubs, medicine and stuff and see how well you do." He reached under the bed's blanket and pulled out another set of scrubs, tossing them roughly at Heero. "Here. One-size-fits-all. Suit up." As Heero turned and started pulling the scrubs over his own clothes, his comrade turned to Gregory and Lillian.

"Hello, again. We've met before, but it was a while ago. Duo Maxwell at your service."

Gregory shook his hand with some slight confusion, as Lillian looked on worriedly.

Duo apparently sensed their concern. "Don't worry. Heero and I are pros at this. We've done this exact thing hundreds of times." It was probably a good thing that Audrey's parents didn't see the look that Heero shot him as he pulled on his shirt. Duo saw it but just grinned and continued. "You're in the best of hands."

Heero, pulling the cap onto his head, cut off whatever they might have said. "Alright. Ready." sure enough, he was now standing in blue scrubs, his black shoes the only thing visible of his normal attire. He picked up his backpack-already packed-and handed it to Gregory. Gregory, miraculously perhaps, took it without a word.

Duo nodded to Heero and then grinned at the Harpers. "Now this will be very simple. Just follow us."

* * *

A/N: I know! It's been forever. I'm terribly sorry about how long it keeps taking me to update. There's really no good excuse, but I'll try…I'm still enrolled in my Masters, am working on my thesis, recently started interning, and even attended an academic conference in another country. And I'm still working on my other story, which didn't wrap up quite as quickly as I'd anticipated.

But thanks so much to all of you who have been so patient with me and are still following this story. I really appreciate your support. Thanks so much to Stormey Night, invisible-gurl, vampireprincessofempire, and the others who left me such nice reviews for the last chapter. Thanks especially to Acacia Eastbramble and IAmAurora for reminding me that people are still following this and giving me a much-needed kick in the pants to post this chapter.

I do hope you enjoyed this chap. Let me know what you thought, and also feel free to send along any comments, wishes for scenes, suggestions, etc!


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